FROM   THE  LIBRARY   OF 
REV.   LOUIS    FITZGERALD    BENSON.   D.  D. 

BEQUEATHED   BY   HIM   TO 
THE   LIBRARY  OF 


PRINCETON   THEOLOGICAL   SEMINARY 


tCOCfZ 


V      Ul      «    il 


"y(^ 


The  Reformation  in  Sy 


ITS    RISE,    PROGRESS,    AND    CRISIS; 

AND  ITS   TRIUMPH  UNDER 

CHARLES   IX. 


C.    M.    BUTLER,    D.D. 

Professor   of  Ecclesiastical   History    in    the   Divinity    School  of  the 
Protestant  Episcopal   Church,    Philadelphia 


New  York 
ANSON   D.    F.    RANDOLPH    &   COMPANY 

9OO    BROADWAY,    COR.    20th    STREET 


Copyright,    1883, 
By  Anson  D.  F.  Randolph  &  Company. 


ST.  JOHNLAND  pRmTED    By 

STEREOTYPE    FOUNDRY,  EDWARD    Q    ^^ 

SUFFOLK    CO.,    N.    Y.  2Q    NORTH    ^^  ^   y_ 


CONTENTS. 


CHAPTER   I. 

SWEDEN      FROM     THE     TREATY     OF     CALMAR,      1 398,      TO     THE 

INVASION    OF    CHRISTIAN    II.     OF    DENMARK,     I52O   .       .       .  I 

CHAPTER   II. 

FROM    THE     INVASION    OF    CHRISTIAN    II.,     I52O,     TO    THE    AC- 
CESSION   OF    GUSTAVUS    TO    THE    THRONE,    I523    .       .       .       .        1 7 

CHAPTER   III. 

FROM    THE    ELECTION    OF    GUSTAVUS    TO    THE    THRONE,    TO    HIS 

COLLISION    WITH    THE    CLERGY,    1 526 49 

CHAPTER   IV. 

THE    SUCCESSFUL    STRUGGLE    OF    GUSTAVUS    WITH    THE    SPIRIT- 
UAL power,   1526-27 75 

CHAPTER   V. 

the    establishment    and    continued    struggles    of    the 
reformation 97 

CHAPTER   VI. 

CONDITION    OF    THE    CHURCH    TO    THE     CLOSE     OF    THE     REIGN 

OF    KING   GUSTAVUS II9 


iv  Contents. 

CHAPTER   VII. 

KING    ERIC    AND    HIS    BROTHERS 147 

CHAPTER   VIII. 

KING     ERIC'S     MADNESS,     IMPRISONMENT     AND     DEATH. DUKE 

JOHN   BECOMES   KING   OF  SWEDEN,   AND    HIS   SON   SIGISMUND 
KING   OF    POLAND 1 69 

CHAPTER    IX. 

THE  REIGN  OF  KING  JOHN  FROM  1 568  TO  1 583  .   .   .   .  193 

CHAPTER   X. 

THE  REIGN  OF  KING  JOHN  FROM    1 583,  TO  HIS  DEATH,    1 592  .     209 

CHAPTER   XI. 

CHARLES    AND   SIGISMUND 229 

CHAPTER  XII. 

FROM  THE  MEETING  OF  THE  DIET  OF  SODERKOXPING,  SEPT. 
30,  I596,  TO  THE  CLOSE  OF  THE  REIGN  OF  CHARLES 
IX.,    OCT.     30,     l6l  1 248 


THE  REFORMATION  IN  SWEDEN. 


CHAPTER   I. 


SWEDEN    FROM    THE    TREATY    OF    CALMAR,    1 398,    TO 
THE  INVASION  OF  CHRISTIAN  II.  OF  DENMARK,  K20. 

THE  history  of  Scandinavia,  previous  to  the  union 
of  the  three  kingdoms  of  Denmark,  Sweden  and 
Norway,  under  Queen  Margaret,  in  accordance  with 
the  treaty  of  Calmar,  is  a  record  of  violent  commo- 
tions and  revolutions,  and  of  incessant  wars  between 
the  three  kingdoms.  There  is  very  little  in  it  to  repay 
the  student  of  general  history  for  the  time  and  toil  it 
will  cost  him  to  acquire  any  coherent  idea  of  its  ever- 
shifting  conditions,  and  still  less  to  attract  or  reward 
the  student  of  ecclesiastical  history. 
Scandina-  The  reigns  of  Birger,  1290-13 19,  and  of  his 
via  previous  son  Magnus,  1319-1363,  in  Sweden,  were 
c/ltnar,  so  marked  by  cruelty  and  disaster  to  the 
*398-  nation   that    some    of  the    banished    nobles 

invited  Albert,  Count  of  Mecklenburg,  son  of  the  sister 
of  Magnus,  to  invade  the  kingdom  and  take  posses- 
sion of  the  throne.  He  accepted  the  invitation  and 
succeeded  to  the  throne  and  reigned  from  1363  to 
1389.  But  his  favors  to  Germans  so  offended  the  na- 
tive nobility  that  they  compelled  him  to  dismiss  his 
German  favorites,  and  to  accept  one  of  their  number, 
Bo  Jonsson,  as  his   chief  adviser  in  the  government. 


2  The  Reformation  in  Sweden. 

Jonsson  soon  became  his  master,  and  his  heirs  offered 
the  throne  to  Margaret,  Queen  of  Denmark  and  Nor- 
way. She  sent  an  army  into  Sweden,  which  defeated 
and  captured  and  imprisoned  Albert.  As  Albert's  son 
died  in  1379  there  was  no  one  to  contest  Queen  Mar- 
garet's claim  to  the  throne,  and  the  designation  of  her 
nephew  Eric,  Duke  of  Pomerania,  to  succeed  to  the 
triple  throne  of  Denmark,  Norway  and  Sweden,  which 
was  secured  by  the  treaty  of  Calmar,  in  1398. 
Sweden  un-  The  conditions  upon  which  the  union  of  the 
der  Queen  three  kingdoms  was  concluded  were  such  as 
argar'  seemed  to  promise  peace  and  many  mutual 
advantages.  It  promised  to  put  an  end  to  the  feuds  by 
which  the  Scandinavian  kingdoms  had  hitherto  been 
convulsed,  and  to  give  to  each  member  of  the  confed- 
eracy, while  still  retaining  its  separate  laws  and  cus- 
toms, a  strength  beyond  its  own  to  resist  the  encroach- 
ments of  more  powerful  states.  It  provided  that  the 
election  of  the  king  should  in  future  be  made  conjointly, 
— the  sons  of  the  sovereign  being  preferred;  each  realm 
was  to  be  governed  by  its  own  laws;  fugitives  from 
one  country  were  not  to  be  protected  in  another;  all 
were  bound  to  take  up  arms  for  the  common  defence. 
It  is  obvious  to  remark  how  great  would  have  been 
the  advantages  of  such  an  arrangement  if  it  could  have 
been  faithfully  maintained;  but  it  is  equally  obvious  to 
conclude  that  such  a  union  of  rival  states  is  scarcely 
practicable  in  the  most  advanced  stages  of  civilization, 
and  quite  impossible  at  an  era  of  violence  and  under 
an  undefined  system  of  succession  to  the  throne.  Mar- 
garet herself  introduced,  or  rather  set  in  motion,  the 
existing  elements  of  discord  by  her  partiality  to  her 
Danish  subjects,— to  whom  she  committed  the  chief 
posts  and  fortresses  of  Sweden, — by  her  new  and  heavy 


The  Reformation  in  Sweden.  3 

imposts,  her  prodigality  to  the  clergy,  and  her  avowed 
policy  of  humbling  the  nobles  of  the  land.  The  in- 
evitable result  immediately  ensued — hatred  on  the 
part  of  the  Swedes  and  devotion  on  the  part  of  the 
Danes.  By  a  native  historian  of  Sweden  she  is  said  to 
have  been  regarded  by  the  Danes  as  sanctam  ct  canoni- 
zatione  dignam,  and  by  the  Swedes  as  profundi ssimo 
dig  nam  inferno. 
c     ,  The   discontent   of  the    Swedes    broke    out 

Sweden  un- 
der     King   into  open  rebellion  after  the  death  of  Queen 

Eric.  Margaret  and   the  accession  of  King  Eric. 

The  king  was  not  qualified  either  by  his  character  or 
his  administrative  ability  to  conciliate  the  esteem,  or 
to  silence  the  dissatisfaction  of  his  subjects.  His  cruel 
treatment  of  his  wife  Phillippa  of  England,  who  by 
her  gentleness  and  intelligence  won  the  hearts  of  the 
Swedes,  subjected  him  to  deserved  obloquy.  In  the 
pursuit  of  objects  in  which  Sweden  had  no  interest— 
the  recovery  of  his  dukedom  of  Pomerania  and  the 
fruitless  attempt  to  conquer  Schleswig — he  exhausted 
the  resources  of  the  country  and  shed  the  blood  of  his 
subjects  in  wars  from  which  they  could  reap  no  bene- 
fit. This  continued  drain  of  men  and  money  from  the 
kingdom,  and  the  oppression  of  the  Danes  and  Ger- 
mans, who  filled  all  the  offices  and  occupied  all  the 
castles  of  the  land,  led  to  a  civil  war,  which,  checked 
from  time  to  time,  still  broke  out  afresh,  and  was  to  be 
extinguished  only  after  a  hundred  years  of  discord  and 
bloodshed  by  the  disruption  of  the  union  between  Den- 
mark and  Sweden. 

Rising  of  Englebert  Englebertson,  an  intelligent,  elo- 
Engiebertin  quent  and  popular  miner  of  Dalecarlia,  who 
Dalecarlia.      ^^    ?3iSse^   his    youth    ill    the    household    of 

great   barons,   and   had    there   acquired    a   degree   of 


4  The  Reformation  in  Sweden. 

knowledge  and  culture  superior  to  that  which  was 
usual  in  his  class,  vowed  to  avenge  the  injuries  suf- 
fered by  the  Dalecarlians  in  common  with  all  their 
countrymen.  The  government  of  that  province  was 
in  the  hands  of  a  Danish  nobleman  named  Ericson. 
His  administration  was  marked  by  every  species  of 
brutal  cruelty  and  oppression.  Englebert  proceeded 
to  Denmark  and  laid  before  the  king  proofs  of  the 
atrocious  tyranny  of  Ericson.  The  king  ordered  an 
inquiry  to  be  made,  and  the  charges  were  admitted 
by  the  State  Council  to  have  been  sustained.  Armed 
with  their  report,  Englebert  returned  to  Denmark  and 
laid  it  before  the  king  and  demanded  the  removal  and 
punishment  of  Ericson.  But  the  king  had  changed  his 
mind,  and  ordered  Englebert  to  be  gone  and  never 
again  to  appear  in  his  presence.  Eric  replied — "  Yet 
once  more  I  will  return." 

The  report  of  this  reception  by  the  king  was  the 
signal  for  revolt.  The  Dalesmen  rose,  elected  Engle- 
bert to  be  their  leader,  marched  against  Westeras  in 
the  autumn  of  1433,  and  though  induced  to  retire  by 
some  of  the  State  Council  who  were  there,  by  their 
promise  to  urge  reforms,  yet  they  would  not  disperse 
before  taking  an  oath  that  they  never  again  would  pay 
taxes  to  Ericson.  An  attempt  on  the  part  of  Ericson 
to  collect  the  taxes  led  to  a  second  insurrection;  but 
the  State  Council  having  persuaded  Ericson  to  resign 
his  command,  the  Dalesmen  were  again  appeased. 
Ericson  himself  took  refuge  in  the  monastery  of  Wad- 
stena,  from  which,  two  years  after,  he  was  dragged 
out  by  the  peasantry  and  put  to  death. 

This  was  the  first  armed  resistance  to  the  Danish 
dynasty,  which  continued  from  this  period,  1433,  at 
intervals  and  with  varying  fortunes,  and  with  several 


The  Reformation  in  Sweden.  5 

revolutions,  until  at  length,  under  Gustavus  Vasa,  and 
by  his  agency,  Sweden  became,  and  has  since  contin- 
ued independent  of  Denmark. 

It  was  necessary  to  describe  the  circum- 
Christian  stances  under  which  Sweden  became  sub- 
II.  of  Den-    ject  to  the  crown  of  Denmark,  in  order  to 

understand  the  history  of  Gustavus  Vasa, 
who  both  liberated  Sweden  from  the  sway  of  Denmark 
and  introduced  and  established  Protestantism  in  his 
kingdom.  But  it  is  not  important,  as  preparatory  to 
a  sketch  of  the  Reformation  in  Sweden,  to  narrate  the 
civil  history  of  the  interval  between  the  treaty  of  Cal- 
mar  and  the  accession  of  Christian  II.  A  mere  outline 
of  those  events  will  answer  for  our  present  purpose. 
Suffice  it  to  say  that  Englebert  was  elected  Regent 
of  the  Kingdom,  and  held  the  position  for  three  years; 
that  he  was  succeeded  in  that  position  by  another  pa- 
triot, Karl  Knutson,  who  was  subsequently  elected 
king;  that  the  dynasty  of  Denmark  again  came  into 
power  in  Sweden  and  held  it  nominally  and  sometimes 
for  a  brief  period  actually,  during  the  reign  of  Christian 
I.,  1448-81,  and  of  Hans  or  John,  1481-1513,  who  was 
succeeded  by  Christian  II.  in  the  latter  year.  From 
this  point  the  history  of  the  Reformation  in  Sweden 
properly  begins. 

Reims  of  ^he  supremacy  of  the  kings  Christian  I.  and 
Christian  I.  John  in  Sweden  was  rather  nominal  than 
and  John.  real  The  real  p0wer  was  exercised  by  pa- 
triotic Swedes  for  the  most  part,  who  were  repeatedly 
at  war  with  Denmark.  Under  a  popular  native  noble- 
man, Sten  Sture,  nephew  of  their  former  king,  Karl 
Knutson,  as  regent,  Sweden  enjoyed  for  some  few 
years  comparative  peace  and  prosperity.  But  in  con- 
sequence  of  evils  which   fell   upon   the   kingdom,   for 


6  The  Reformation  in  Sweden. 

which  he  was  in  no  degree  responsible — such  as  a 
succession  of  bad  crops,  and  the  excommunication 
pronounced  against  him,  because  in  the  interests  of 
the  state  he  withheld  the  revenues  claimed  by  the 
Danish  Queen  dowager — Sture  became  unpopular  with 
the  fickle  and  unreasoning  people.  The  king  availed 
himself  of  this  dissatisfaction,  and  the  consequent  de- 
pression of  the  kingdom,  to  march  an  army  into  Sweden 
with  a  view  to  establish  his  personal  authority.  The 
expedition  of  King  John  was  successful;  and  he  was 
crowned  in  Stockholm  on  the  25th  of  November,  1497. 
Sture  was  deposed  from  the  Regency,  but  became  High 
Chancellor,  and  was  one  of  the  four  commissioners  to 
whom  the  administration  of  the  kingdom  was  com- 
mitted, by  King  John,  on  his  return  to  Denmark.  But 
on  account  of  the  great  dissatisfaction  with  King  John's 
administration,  in  1501  Sture  was  again  placed  at  the 
head  of  the  government  with  the  name  of  Guardian 
of  the  Kingdom.  This  position  he  held  until  his  death, 
December  15,  1503.  He  was  succeeded  in  the  same 
office  by  his  kinsman,  Saunto  Sture,  whose  administra- 
tion of  nine  years  was  an  incessant  but  successful  series 
of  wars,  in  resistance  of  the  efforts  of  King  John  to 
regain  supremacy  in  the  kingdom.  After  his  death  in 
15 12,  his  son,  Steno  Sture,  was  called  by  the  popular 
voice,  rather  than  by  any  recognized  authority,  as  his 
successor.  His  election  was  subsequently  forced  upon 
the  council  at  Stockholm  by  the  popular  clamor. 
Death  of  Christian  II.,  justly  known  as  "  the  tyrant," 
King  John    succeeded  Kins:  John,  who  died  in  1  q  13.     He 

—  Accession     .  ,  .       .  , 

of     Chris-    immediately  opened   negotiations  with  the 
Han  //.  Guardian   and   the   Council  with   a  view  to 

secure  their  recognition  of  his  right  to  the  throne  of 
Sweden.    Failing  in  this  attempt,  he  excited  his  partisan, 


The  Reformation  in  Sweden.  7 

Trolle,  the  Archbishop,  to  organize  an  armed  rebellion 
in  his  interest  against  the  existing  government.  The 
Archbishop  was  described  as  one  "who  never  forgave 
a  past  wrong,  real  or  fancied."  It  in  no  degree  dis- 
armed his  hostility  that  Sture,  in  order  to  bring  about 
a  reconciliation,  had  secured  his  election  to  the  Arch- 
bishopric. He  stirred  up  war  therefore  in  the  interest 
of  Christian  II.,  who  upon  the  invasion  of  Sweden,  suf- 
fered a  complete  defeat.  This  battle,  as  celebrated  in 
Swedish  annals  as  that  of  Bannockburn  in  the  history 
of  Scotland,  was  fought  at  Bren-Kirka,  July  22,  15 18. 
It  was  in  this  battle  that  Gustavus  Vasa  first  appeared 
prominently,  having  occupied  the  honorable  position 
of  standard  bearer,  and  distinguished  himself  for  valor 
and  ability  in  the  field.  As  the  history  of  the  rise  of 
the  Reformation  in  Sweden  turns  upon  that  of  Gusta- 
vus Vasa,  and  his  history  is  inseparably  implicated 
with  that  of  Christian  II.,  it  becomes  necessary  to  give 
a  sketch  of  the  life  and  character  of  each. 
Christian  Christian  II.  was  the  only  son  of  King  John 
IL  and  his  Queen,  Christina  of  Saxony,  and  was 

born  in  1481.  It  is  an  evidence  of  the  simplicity  of  the 
times,  and  of  the  country,  that  in  order  to  provide  for 
their  frequent  absence  from  Copenhagen,  the  King  and 
Queen,  instead  of  leaving  him  in  the  palace  in  the  care 
of  their  own  attendants,  placed  him  under  the  charge 
of  a  book-binder  of  the  City.  It  may  be  inferred  also 
that,  discerning  his  imperious,  cruel  and  crafty  nature, 
his  parents  felt  that  these  evil  traits  would  be  more 
likely  to  be  restrained  in  a  well  regulated  private  home, 
than  in  the  palace,  where  his  faults  would  be  likely  to 
be  flattered  and  inflamed,  rather  than  restrained,  by 
subservient  menials  and  courtiers.  Hans  Metzenheim, 
the  book-binder,  was  a  burgomaster  and  a  counsellor 


8  The  Reformation  in  Sweden. 

of  state,  and  having  no  children  of  their  own,  he  and 
his  wife  devoted  themselves  assiduously  to  the  education 
of  the  royal  boy.  His  capacity  was  very  great,  and  he 
applied  himself  well,  under  constraint,  to  his  studies,  and 
made  rapid  progress;  but  his  tutor  Hinze,  a  Canon  of 
the  Cathedral,  dared  not  trust  the  wayward  boy  out 
of  sight,  and  therefore,  always  took  him  to  church 
when  on  duty  there.  As  the  young  Prince  had  a  fine 
voice  and  a  good  ear  for  music,  he  was  made  to  sing 
among  the  choristers  at  matins  and  vespers.  But 
when  King  John  was  told  that  the  heir  of  three 
Kingdoms  was  singing,  and  was  much  admired,  in 
all  of  the  choirs  of  Copenhagen,  he  sharply  rebuked 
his  tutor  for  placing  his  son  in  a  position  derogatory 
to  his  royal  dignity.  The  incident  led  to  a  change 
of  tutors.  At  the  request  of  the  King,  Joachin  of 
Brandenburg  sent  him  another  tutor,  Magister  Con- 
rad, a  man  of  great  learning  and  force  of  character, 
who  was  able  to  control  his  pupil,  and  succeeded  in 
imbuing  him  with  a  love  of  learning.  Christian  made 
great  progress  and  is  said  at  an  early  age  and  during 
all  his  life  "to  have  written  and  spoken  Latin  as  well 
as  the  most  learned  University  professors  of  his  time" 
(Otto's  Scandinavia,  page  214). 

But  this  ready  mastery  of  learning  seems  in  no  de- 
gree to  have  softened  or  refined  his  character.  He  was 
accustomed,  after  he  was  domiciled  in  the  palace,  to 
bribe  the  porter  to  allow  him  to  go  out  in  the  night 
and  join  in  scenes  of  revelry  and  licentiousness.  On 
some  occasions,  when  detected  in  these  escapades,  the 
King  personally  applied  a  horse-whip  to  his  shoulders. 
But  when  he  had  reached  the  age  of  twenty,  and  this 
sort  of  rigid  discipline  became  no  longer  possible,  the 
King  sent  him  as  his  Viceroy  to  govern  Norway.     He 


The  Reformation  in  Sweden.  9 

at  once  put  himself  in  an  attitude  of  hostility  to  the 
nobility,  and  relentlessly  crushed  out  every  attempt 
at  resistance  or  rebellion.  He  seems  from  his  early 
boyhood  to  have  hated  the  nobility,  to  have  had  a 
dislike  to  their  character,  habits  and  manners,  quite 
irrespective  of  their  feelings  or  relations  towards  him- 
self. His  chosen  associates  were  among  the  lower 
classes.  His  enmity  to  the  nobles  was  increased  by 
the  restrictions  which  they  imposed  upon  his  authority 
at  his  Coronation. 

Gust av us  Gustavus  Vasa,  or  as  he  was  called  before 
Vasa.  he  became  king,  Gustavus  Erickson,  was  de- 

scended from  an  ancient  and  noble  family.  His  grand- 
father, Christopher  Nilson,  was  appointed  a  councillor 
by  King  Eric.  His  father  was  not  distinguished  in 
the  public  service,  and  though  called  "  a  merry  and 
facetious  lord,"  was  arraigned  before  the  council  in 
Stockholm  for  cruelty  to  his  peasants,  and  made  to 
pledge  himself  "that  he  would  not  thereafter  place 
them  in  irons  or  treat  them  like  senseless  beasts," 
when  accused  of  depredations  upon  his  estates,  but 
"would  allow  them  their  rights  in  law."  The  date 
of  his  birth  has  been  fixed  on  good  grounds,  on  As- 
cension Day,  1496.  Those  presages  of  future  great- 
ness which  seldom  fail  to  be  subsequently  recorded, 
in  the  case  of  those  who  become  renowned,  were  not 
wanting  at  his  birth.  A  crimson  cross  was  marked 
upon  his  breast,  and  the  outline  of  a  helmet  was  seen 
upon  his  head.  When  he  was  only  four  years  old, 
King  John,  during  one  of  his  later  visits  to  Sweden, 
saw  him  playing  the  part  of  the  king  in  the  midst  of 
a  group  of  children  and,  as  the  story  goes,  patted  him 
upon  the  head,  saying  "that  if  he  lived  he  would  be 
a  remarkable  man."     He  kept  the  bright  boy  in  his 


io  The  Reformation  in  Sweden. 

train  while  he  was  in  Sweden,  and  wished  to  carry 
him  to  Denmark.  If  he  had  done  so  the  whole  his- 
tory of  Northern  Europe  would  have  been  changed, 
the  Reformation  in  Sweden  perhaps  never  effected, 
nor  the  liberation  of  Protestantism,  mainly  due  to 
the  heroic  Gustavus  Adolphus,  achieved.  But  Sten 
Sture,  suspecting  that  the  king  was  more  bent  on  se- 
curing a  hostage  than  a  foster  son,  sent  him  to  his 
father,  who  was  then  Lord  Feudatory  of  Aland. 

Geijer  remarks  that  "all  accounts  agree  that  young 
Gustavus  was  placed  in  the  Seminary  of  Upsala,  in 
1509."  "It  is  known,"  he  continues,  "that  he  was 
placed  in  the  grammar  school  and  was  subjected  to 
personal  chastisement  while  there  by  the  Danish  school- 
master. The  latter  was  informed  that  the  young  pupil 
had  upon  some  occasion  said,  'See  what  I  will  do!  I 
will  go  to  Dalecarlia,  get  out  the  Dalesmen,  and  knock 
the  Danes  on  the  head.'  Gustavus  suffered  his  school 
flogging,  then  drawing  his  little  sword,  he  thrust  it 
through  the  curtains  with  a  malison  never  to  return. 
A  hundred  years  afterwards  the  country  people  could 
point  out  the  places  in  the  neighborhood  of  Upsala 
which  he  had  frequented  with  his  playmates,  and  tell 
how  he  had  been  at  a  wolf  chase  hunting  merrily."  As 
an  indication  of  the  bent  of  his  mind  toward  religious 
subjects,  it  is  stated  that  while  he  was  at  Upsala,  his 
chief  studies,  outside  of  the  curiculum  of  the  school, 
were  canon  law  and  theology.  He  was  also  a  gifted 
musician,  and  while  at  school  made  several  musical 
instruments,  which  are  still  preserved  in  the  palace 
of  Stockholm. 

All  accounts  agree  that  he  was  received  and  em- 
ployed in  the  Court  of  the  Regent  Sten  Sture  the 
younger.     He  was  then  eighteen  years  of  age,  and  was 


The  Reformation  in  Sweden.  ii 

placed  under  the  tuition  of  Hemming  Gadd,  who  had 
been  mathematicus  to  Pope  Alexander  III.,  had  written 
a  history  of  Sweden  which  was  much  prized,  was  a  sworn 
enemy  of  the  Danes  and  an  able  politician.  With  him, 
no  doubt,  the  young  patriot  could  freely  resume  his 
boyish  talk  of  his  purpose  to  rouse  up  Dalesmen  and 
knock  Danes  upon  the  head — a  seemingly  wild  and 
empty  boast  which  was  subsequently  so  remarkably 
fulfilled.  The  chroniclers  of  the  time  speak  of  him  as 
"a  noble  youth,  comely,  ready-witted  and  prompt  in 
action."  He  was  particularly  distinguished,  even  at 
that  early  period,  for  the  persuasive  eloquence  which 
was  one  of  the  most  potent  means  by  which  he  subse- 
quently acquired  such  a  commanding  influence  over 
his  countrymen.  Even  to  his  extreme  old  age,  when 
Gustavus  met  any  large  body  of  his  countrymen  in 
council,  or  in  a  crisis  of  affairs,  they  would  clamor  for 
a  speech  from  the  old  man  eloquent,  and  receive  it 
with  immense  applause,  and  insist  that  there  was  no 
orator  like  him.  We  shall  see  how  at  a  momentous 
crisis  of  his  own  fortunes  and  of  those  of  the  Reforma- 
tion, he  consolidated  the  former  and  saved  the  latter 
by  a  single  speech. 

The  battle  ^  was  after  Gustavus  had  resided  at  the 
of  Brenn-  court  three  years,  that  the  rising  of  Arch- 
bishop Trolle,  in  the  interest  of  Christian  II., 
already  alluded  to,  occurred.  The  Archbishop  was 
besieged  in  his  castle  of  Stekborg  and  a  Danish  re- 
inforcement was  sent  to  his  relief.  This  force  was 
defeated  by  Gustavus.  In  the  following  year,  in  the 
famous  battle  of  Brenn-Kirk,  between  King  Christian 
and  Sten  Sture,  in  which  the  king  was  defeated,  Gus- 
tavus, as  we  have  seen,  bore  the  banner.  But  by  the 
treachery  of  the  king,  and  the  misplaced  confidence  in 


12  The  Reformation  in  Sweden. 

him  of  the  Regent,  this  victory  resulted  in  disaster  and 
loss  rather  than  gain.  The  Danes  attempted  after  the 
defeat  to  retreat,  but  the  fleet  in  which  they  embarked 
their  shattered  forces  was  detained  by  contrary  winds, 
and  sorely  pressed  by  famine.  The  king,  in  order  to 
gain  time,  professed  a  desire  to  negotiate  a  peace  which 
should  leave  Sweden  henceforth  unmolested  by  the 
Danes.  The  Regent,  feeling  that  he  had  the  king  in 
his  power,  and  that  he  could  force  upon  him  terms 
which  would  secure  him  and  his  kingdom  in  the  future, 
consented  to  treat  with  him;  and  during  the  negotia- 
tions he  generously  furnished  the  famishing  squadron 
with  beef  and  other  provisions.  The  king  invited  him 
to  a  personal  conference  on  board  his  ship;  and  the 
unsuspecting  Regent  would  have  fallen  into  the  snare 
thus  prepared  for  him,  had  not  the  town  council  de- 
clared that  if  he  went  on  board  they  would  soon  have 
another  Regent,  for  they  were  sure  he  never  would 
return. 

Foiled  in  this  base  design,  the  king  devised  another, 
equally  treacherous,  which  was  completely  successful. 
He  professed  his  willingness  to  come  on  shore,  pro- 
vided suitable  hostages  should  be  sent  to  the  squadron. 
Six  nobles — including  Gustavus  and  Hemming  Gadd 
— were  chosen  for  this  purpose.  But  the  boat  in  which 
they  were  embarked,  had  not  accomplished  half  its 
passage  to  the  fleet,  when  a  Danish  ship  with  a  hun- 
dred men  on  board  captured  it,  and  carried  the  six 
hostages  to  the  fleet  as  prisoners.  A  favorable  breeze 
springing  up  took  away  all  hope  of  rescue.  The  fleet 
weighed  anchor,  the  sails  were  filled,  and  they  were 
all  soon  landed  on  the  coast  of  Denmark.  Thus  the 
defeated  king,  by  an  act  of  gross  treachery,  evaded 
the  promised  proposals  of  peace,  provisioned  his  starv- 


The  Reformation  in  Sweden.  13 

ing  fleet  and  army  from  his  victorious  enemy,  and 
carried  into  captivity  six  of  the  most  eminent  nobles 
of  the  land.  But  it  was  a  triumph  which,  by  intensi- 
fying the  patriotic  passion  of  the  Swedes,  led  to  an 
ultimate  defeat. 
^7    „     .      Gustavus  had  the  good  fortune  to  be  com- 

The  Captiv-  •  i  1  r  -r»  t-»   • 

ity  and  es-    mitted  to  the  care  of  a  kinsman,  Baron  Eric 
cape  of  Gus-    Baner,  Governor  of  the  castle  of  Kallo,  North 

tavus.  t      1         1         1  1  /- 

Jutland,  where  he  spent  upwards  of  a  year 
as  a  prisoner,  and  was  treated  with  kindness  and  al- 
lowed a  liberty,  not  usually  granted  to  prisoners  of 
state.  But  the  whole  country  was  ringing  with  rumors 
of  the  great  preparations  which  were  in  progress  for 
the  conquest  of  Sweden.  Christian  had  imposed  new 
taxes  for  the  prosecution  of  the  war  and  even  extorted 
from  the  Papal  Legate  the  sums  that  had  been  amassed 
by  the  sale  of  indulgences,  which  he  appropriated  on 
the  plea  that  it  was  a  war  in  which  the  interests  of 
the  Papacy  were  involved.  Copenhagen  was  thronged 
with  French,  Scotch  and  English  mercenary  officers 
and  troops.  The  young  soldiers  at  the  mess  of  the 
castle  of  Kallo  talked  of  the  preparations  for  the  con- 
quest of  Sweden  with  exasperating  exultation.  They 
boasted  that  they  would  soon  play  with  the  Swedes 
44 S.  Peter's  game" — an  allusion  to  the  Papal  interdict 
which  they  hoped  to  secure,  and  jestingly  and  mock- 
ingly parcelled  out  among  themselves  the  wealth  and 
beauty  of  the  nation. 

How  the  ardent  and  patriotic  heart  of  the  young 
Gustavus  must  have  chafed  in  his  captivity!  "  By 
such  contumelies  was  Lord  Gustavus  Ericson  seized 
with  anguish  beyond  measure,  so  that  neither  meat 
nor  drink  might  savor  pleasantly  to  him,  even  if  he 
had  been  furnished  better  than  he  was.     His  sleep  was 


14  The  Reformation  in  Sweden. 

neither  quiet  nor  delectable,  for  he  co-uld  think  of  noth- 
ing- else  than  how  he  might  find  opportunity  to  extri- 
cate himself  from  the  unjust  captivity  in  which  he  was 
held"  (Geijer,  page  98). 

It  is  not  to  be  wondered  at  that  under  such  circum- 
stances Gustavus  should  have  persuaded  himself  that 
he  might  without  dishonor  escape  from  his  captivity. 
He  might  well  feel  that  he  was  called  to  do  so  by  duty 
to  his  country.  He  was  not  a  prisoner  captured  in 
war.  He  was  stolen  and  consigned  to  captivity  in 
violation  of  Royal  pledges  and  of  the  laws  which  reg- 
ulated the  warfare  of  civilized  nations.  Early  in  the 
morning  of  February  19,  he  left  the  castle  disguised, 
according  to  some  as  a  pilgrim,  but  according  to  others 
as  a  drover,  and  traveled  on  the  first  day  of  his  escape 
forty-two  English  miles.  He  did  not  reach  Lubeck 
until  the  last  day  of  September,  when  he  threw  him- 
self on  the  protection  of  the  Burgomaster  and  Council. 
As  soon  as  Eric  Baner  discovered  the  retreat  of  Gus- 
tavus, he  hastened  to  Lubeck,  armed  with  a  letter 
of  the  King,  and  demanded  back  his  prisoner.  He 
complained  at  the  same  time  that  Gustavus  had  es- 
caped, contrary  to  his  pledged  word  as  a  Knight  and 
a  Kinsman.  Gustavus  spoke  in  his  own  defense.  "I 
was  captured,"  he  said,  "  contrary  to  all  justice  and 
plighted  faith.  It  is  notorious  that  I  went  to  the  King's 
fleet  as  a  hostage.  Let  any  one  who  can,  point  out 
the  place  where  I  was  made  prisoner  in  battle,  or  de- 
clare the  crime  for  which  I  deserve  chains.  Call  me 
not  then  a  prisoner,  but  a  man  seized,  unjustly,  over- 
reached and  betrayed.  Am  I  not  in  a  free  city  and 
before  a  government  renowned  for  justice  and  for  be- 
friending the  persecuted  ?  Shall  I  be  altogether  de- 
ceived in  the  confidence  I  have  reposed  in  them  ?     Or 


The  Reformation  in  Sweden.  15 

can  breach  of  faith  be  reasonably  objected  to  me  by- 
one  who  never  kept  oath  or  promise  ?  Or  can  it  be 
wondered  at  that  I  should  free  myself  from  a  prison 
which  I  deserved  by  no  fault  except  that  of  trusting 
to  a  King  ?  " 

Gustavus  promised  to  repay  to  Baner  the  $6,000  by 
which  he  was  pledged  to  Christian  for  the  security  of 
his  prisoner.  This  promise  he  was  not  able  at  first  to 
fulfil,  and  subsequently  he  believed  himself  exonerated 
from  it  by  the  wrongs  which  he  had  endured.  He 
denied  also  that  he  had  given  any  pledge  to  remain 
at  Kallo,  or  that  he  was  in  the  position  of  a  prisoner 
on  his  parole  of  honor. 

However  much  or  little  the  shrewd  burgesses  of 
Lubeck  may  have  felt  the  force  of  this  argument,  their 
sympathies  no  doubt  were  enlisted  on  the  side  of  a 
fine,  spirited  young  man,  the  dupe  of  a  faithless  tyrant. 
Moreover,  motives  of  policy  happily  coincided  with 
those  of  feeling.  Christian,  as  the  undisputed  Lord 
of  the  three  Northern  Kingdoms,  would  possess  a 
power  which  he  might  easily  employ  for  the  subjec- 
tion of  one  of  the  smallest  of  the  free  Hanse  towns, 
which  was  protected  rather  by  a  tradition  of  its  in- 
violability than  by  any  possession  of  military  power. 
The  Burgomaster  urged  this  view  upon  his  colleagues. 
"Who  knows,"  said  the  council,  "What  Gustavus  may 
do  when  he  gets  back  to  Sweden?"  They  evidently 
hoped  that  he  might  be  an  instrument  for  checking 
the  progress  of  the  King  in  his  native  land,  and  thus 
prevent  him  from  plotting  against  their  liberties.  With 
this  view  they  refused  to  deliver  Gustavus  to  the  Baron 
Baner,  and  determined  to  send  him  back  to  Sweden. 

His  brief  residence  in  Lubeck  exercised  a  moment- 
ous influence  on  the  subsequent  career  of  Gustavus.     It 


16  The  Reformation  in  Sweden. 

was  there  that  he  first  heard  and  became  interested 
in  the  doctrines  of  the  Reformation,  and  thus  became 
providentially  prepared  for  his  great  mission — the  de- 
liverance of  his  country  from  the  Papal  despotism. 
The  Inter-  During  the  captivity  of  Gustavus  events  of 
dicL  the  utmost  moment  had  occurred  in  Sweden. 

The  talk  of  the  young  soldiers  over  their  cups  in  the 
dinner  hall  of  Kallo,  which  had  so  exasperated  him 
and  led  to  his  escape,  was  not  all  boyish  gasconade. 
The  "Game  of  S.  Peter" — the  threatened  interdict — 
had  been  played,  and  Sweden  was  soon  after  success- 
fully invaded  by  Christian. 

The  only  ground  on  which  the  Pope  could  claim 
that  there  was  cause  for  his  interference  between 
Christian  and  the  Swedes,  was  that  the  latter  were 
in  rebellion  against  their  lawful  lord;  and  that  it  was 
his  duty  to  coerce  kings  to  perform  their  civil  duties 
by  spiritual  penalties.  There  was  as  yet  no  question 
of  religion  involved  in  the  strife.  But  the  once  terrible 
instruments  of  interdict  and  excommunication  had  not 
lost  all  their  power,  and  the  former  was  laid  upon  the 
kingdom,  and  the  latter  was  pronounced  against  the 
Regent,  and  against  all  who  had  espoused  his  cause. 
Pope  Leo  X.  was  equally  ready  to  pronounce  a  bless- 
ing or  a  curse  which  would  replenish  his  treasury,  and 
enable  him  to  indulge  his  luxurious  tastes.  No  real 
influence  appears  to  have  been  exerted  by  these  spirit- 
ual weapons.  That  in  which  the  sting  of  the  Papal 
Bull  was  contained  was  the  fact  that  the  execution  of  it 
was  committed  to  Christian.  It  was  this  unusual  pro- 
vision which  constituted  the  plea  for  the  horrible  atroc- 
ities which  he  committed  when  he  acquired  the  pos- 
session of  the  kingdom. 


CHAPTER   II. 

FROM   THE   INVASION  OF  CHRISTIAN  II.,   152O,  TO   THE 
ACCESSION  OF  GUSTAVUS  TO  THE  THRONE,   I  523. 

Christian's  T^HE  whole  of  the  year  15 19  was  spent 
invasion  of  -A-  in  making"  preparations  for  the  inva- 
sion. In  the  beginning  of  the  year  1520  the 
Danish  army  broke  into  Sweden  under  the  General  Otho 
Krumpen.  He  caused  the  Papal  Ban  to  be  affixed  to 
all  the  churches  on  his  march.  The  Regent  met  the 
invaders  on  the  ice  of  the  lake  of  Ascunden  in  West 
Gothland.  But  being  wounded  in  the  beginning  of  the 
battle,  he  was  carried  out  of  the  conflict  and  his  army 
was  defeated.  Learning  that  the  victorious  Danes  were 
marching  upon  Stockholm,  he  caused  himself  to  be  car- 
ried to  the  Capital  on  a  sledge,  but  died  upon  the  ice  of 
lake  Malar  when  near  the  city.  Everything  was  thrown 
into  confusion  by  this  disaster.  A  few  magnates  met 
but  did  not  feel  authorized  to  appoint  a  successor  to  the 
Regency.  The  country  people  assembled  in  various  lo- 
calities to  resist  the  enemy;  but  without  leaders  and 
organization,  they  were  easily  dispersed.  The  heroic 
widow  of  the  Regent,  Christina  Gillenstierna,  still  con- 
tinued to  defend  Stockholm.  She  refused  to  accede  to 
the  agreement  which  the  Swedish  barons  in  a  diet  had 
made  with  Christian,  that  they  would  recognize  him  as 
king,  on  condition  that  he  should  govern  in  accordance 
with  the  laws  of  the  kingdom  and  the  treaty  of  Calmar. 


1 8  The  Reformation  in  Sweden. 

Giistavus  in  It  was  while  these  disasters  were  occurring 
Sweden.  jn  Sweden  that  Gustavus  embarked  in  a 
merchant  vessel  bound  to  Stockholm,  with  the  purpose 
of  offering  his  services  to  the  Regent's  widow.  Unable 
to  penetrate  into  the  city,  because  it  was  so  closely 
invested,  he  steered  for  Calmar,  which  still  held  out 
against  the  king.  That  fortress  also  was  defended  by 
a  woman,  Ann  Bielke,  the  widow  of  the  former  com- 
mandant. But  so  dispirited  did  he  find  the  burghers 
of  that  city,  that  his  appeals  to  them  to  make  a  gallant 
defense,  not  only  failed  to  rouse  their  courage,  but  led 
to  threats  against  his  life.  He  fled  from  the  city  on  the 
day  that  it  was  surrendered.  From  Calmar  he  proceeded 
to  Smaland,  among  his  father's  tenants.  But  even 
there  he  was  not  safe.  The  province  of  East  Gothland 
was  so  filled  with  Danes,  that  it  was  only  by  continual 
changes  of  quarters  and  disguises  that  he  escaped  de- 
tection. His  appeals  to  his  countrymen  to  rise  and 
shake  off  the  yoke,  were  met  by  a  stolid  half-despair, 
which  seemed  now  to  have  taken  possession  of  all  ranks 
in  the  kingdom.  During  the  whole  summer  he  glided 
through  by-ways  from  one  place  of  danger  to  another, 
sleeping  one  night  in  the  woods,  and  another  hidden 
by  brush  wood  in  the  open  field,  disguised  and  pursued 
with  a  price  upon  his  head.  In  September  he  appeared 
without  money  and  with  only  the  tattered  clothes  which 
he  wore,  in  the  house  of  his  brother-in-law,  J.  Brahe.  In 
vain  he  urged  Brahe  to  disobey  the  summons  which  he 
had  received  to  be  present  at  the  coronation  of  Chris- 
tian at  Stockholm,  which  had  then  surrendered.  The 
unhappy  man,  sharing  the  terror  that  everywhere  pre- 
vailed, feared  that  he  would  be  marked  if  he  should  be 
absent,  and  set  out  upon  the  journey  which  proved  to 
be,  as  Gustavus  had  predicted,  his  last.     His  son,  in 


The  Reformation  in  Sweden.  19 

his  chronicle  of  these  times,  gives  his  answer  to  the 
appeal  of  Gustavus:  "  I  am  specially  cited  to  the  coro- 
nation," he  said,  "and  if  I  should  remain  away  what 
would  become  of  my  wife  and  children  ?  Perhaps  ill 
might  come  of  it  to  your  parents  as  well  as  hers,  and 
others  of  our  friends.  For  you  the  matter  stands  quite 
otherwise,  for  not  many  know  where  you  are.  It  can 
go  no  worse  with  me  than  with  all  the  Swedish  lords 
who  are  now  gathered  about  the  king."  How  fatally 
it  went  with  both  him  and  them  we  soon  shall  see! 
Proceedings  The  ^et  0**  Swedish  Barons  held  at  Upsala 
of  Chris-  had  agreed  to  accept  Christian  as  King,  on 
the  explicit  condition  that  he  would  govern 
according  to  the  treaty  of  Calmar  and  the  laws  of 
Sweden.  These  engagements  were  personally  con- 
firmed by  the  king  upon  arriving  with  his  fleet  before 
Stockholm.  He  added  moreover  that  the  measures 
adopted  against  Archbishop  Trolle,  who  was  now  re- 
stored to  his  office,  should  be  forgotten  and  forgiven. 
These  assurances  were  again  renewed  when  Hemming 
Gadd,  who  had  spent  his  life  in  passionate  opposition  to 
the  Danish  claims,  now  appeared  in  old  age  through 
the  depression  caused  by  the  seeming  hopelessness  of 
further  resistance,  as  their  advocate.  It  was  by  the 
weight  of  his  character  and  the  previously  known  hos- 
tility to  the  Danes,  that  Christina  Gillenstierna  was 
induced  to  surrender  Stockholm,  against  the  remon- 
strances of  the  burghers.  When  the  king  returned  in 
autumn  and  was  crowned  in  Stockholm,  he  once  more 
confirmed,  by  oath  and  the  reception  of  the  Sacrament, 
the  securities  which  he  had  given.  And  yet  at  that 
very  moment  it  is  placed  beyond  all  doubt  that  he  had 
resolved  upon  the  murder  of  the  chief  nobles  and  high- 
est citizens  of  Sweden.     In  the  proclamation   of  the 


20  The  Reformation  in  Sweden. 

council  of  State,  issued  after  Christian  had  been  de- 
throned, it  is  stated  that  at  the  coronation,  and  only 
three  days  preceding  the  massacre  of  the  nobles,  he 
had  appeared,  full  of  courtesy  and  friendliness,  to  his 
unsuspecting  victims.  "  He  appeared,"  says  that  doc- 
ument, "  friendly  to  all  and  was  very  merry  and  pleas- 
ant in  his  demeanor,  caressing  some  with  hypocritical 
kisses,  and  others  with  embraces,  clapping  his  hands, 
and  displaying  on  all  hands  tokens  of  affection." 

It  soon  appeared  how  much  had  been  meant  by  the 
threat  to  play  the  game  of  S.  Peter  in  Sweden,  and  by 
leaving  the  execution  of  the  Papal  power  in  the  hands 
of  the  king.  Notwithstanding  the  festivities  and  cour-. 
tesies  connected  with  the  coronation,  some  circum- 
stances took  place  which  excited  the  suspicions  of  the 
Swedish  nobles.  There  was  a  marked  omission  of  all 
Swedes  from  the  honors  which  were  distributed  on  that 
occasion.  Many  of  the  Danish  officers  who  had  sig- 
nalized themselves  in  the  invasion  of  the  kingdom,  re- 
ceived the  honor  of  knighthood  at  the  hands  of  the 
king;  but  no  Swede  received  any  mark  of  favor  beyond 
empty  and  hypocritical  courtesies  and  words.  The 
king  excused  himself  for  not  extending  the  same  hon- 
or to  the  Swedes,  on  the  ground  that  he  had  received 
no  aid  from  them  in  the  recovery  of  the  throne;  but  he 
added  that  by  their  fidelity  in  the  future,  he  would 
be  able  to  confer  on  them  as  much  favor  as  he  had 
bestowed  on  the  most  distinguished  of  his  Danish 
officers. 

In  the  midst  of  these  festivities  which  lasted  three 
days  the  king  held  a  cabinet  council  in  which  the  ques- 
tion was  discussed  as  to  the  penalties  which  should  be 
inflicted  upon  those  who  had  resisted  his  authority  by 
armed  rebellion.     He  observed  that  the  Swedes  were 


The  Reformation  in  Sweden.  21 

exceedingly  jealous  of  their  freedom,  and  that  unless 
they  were  completely  subdued,  they  would  not  long- 
endure  a  government  which  from  its  nature,  in  order  to 
be  effective,  must  be  strict.  He  proposed  to  root  out, 
as  he  had  done  in  Norway,  the  distinguished  and  noble 
families,  and  leave  only  the  commonalty,  which  with- 
out able  leaders  would  soon  be  brought  into  submis- 
sion. He  demanded  of  his  counsellors  how  this  might 
be  accomplished  with  the  greatest  safety. 

Some  suggested  that  a  quarrel  should  be  got  up 
between  the  military  and  the  town's  people,  and  that 
in  the  confusion  which  would  ensue,  they  should  take 
off  whom  they  pleased.  But  this  was  dismissed  as  a 
hazardous  and  doubtful  scheme.  Others  suggested  that 
gunpowder  should  be  placed  under  the  castle,  and  that 
a  charge  of  treason  founded  upon  this  fact  should  be 
laid  against  the  nobles.  But  the  counsel  of  Didric 
Slaghec  (called  after  this  by  a  slight  change  of  pro- 
nunciation 5 lag- ho ch, or  slaughter- kaivk)  was  that  which 
was  finally  adopted.  He  was  the  king's  confessor,  a 
Westphalian  by  birth,  and  had  once  been  a  barber's 
assistant.  He  suggested — and  it  was  believed,  by  a 
previous  understanding  with  the  king — that  the  king 
now  wielded  two  swords,  the  temporal  and  the  spirit- 
ual: the  temporal  in  his  own  right  and  the  spiritual 
upon  the  express  designation  of  the  Pope.  The  king 
might  forgive  offenses  against  himself,  but  not  against 
the  Holy  See.  His  promise  of  oblivion  was  therefore  to 
be  kept  as  far  as  he  personally  was  concerned,  but  in 
his  capacity  as  representative  of  the  Church  it  was  not 
binding.  Let  him  then  bring  the  excommunication 
into  play,  and  deal  with  all  who  had  taken  part  against 
Archbishop  Trolle  as  heretics.  And  yet  the  penalty 
which  the  Pope,  in  whose  name  this  atrocious  advice 


22  The  Reformation  in  Sweden. 

was  given,  had  already  pronounced  was  only  that  the 
demolished  castle  of  the  archbishop  should  be  rebuilt, 
and  that  compensation  for  damages  should  be  given, 
and  a  pecuniary  fine  should  be  levied. 
"The  blood  It  was  at  an  entertainment  at  the  castle 
bath."  given  by  the  king  that  the  first  act  of  this 

awful  tragedy,  called  the  blood  bath  in  the  annals  of 
Sweden,  was  performed.  The  archbishop,  by  previous 
concert  with  the  king,  came  before  the  throne,  and  de- 
manded that  Steckborg  should -be  rebuilt,  and  the  au- 
thors of  his  wrong  should  be  punished.  The  accusation 
being  pointed  against  Sten  Sture  and  his  adherents, 
Christina  Gillenstierna,  in  justification  of  her  husband, 
produced  the  deed  which  solemnly  deposed  the  arch- 
bishop and  decreed  the  destruction  of  his  castle.  This 
was  precisely  what  the  king  desired.  He  immediately 
declared  that  he  would  treat  all  who  had  signed  it  as 
heretics.  They  were  asked  separately  whether  they 
acknowledged  their  signatures,  and  as  they  could  not 
deny  them,  they  were  all  taken  into  custody,  with  the 
exception  of  two  bishops,  who  proved  that  they  had 
signed  the  document  under  compulsion.  Thus,  as  sub- 
sequently in  the  case  of  the  marriage  festivities  of 
Henry  of  Navarre,  the  hall  of  feasting  was  suddenly 
converted  into  a  tribunal  for  the  trial  of  alleged  here- 
tics and  rebels. 

The  prisoners  were  committed  for  the  night  to  the 
tower  of  the  chapel  and  other  parts  of  the  castle.  A 
tribunal,  consisting  of  the  archbishop  and  several 
bishops  and  nobles  was  appointed  by  the  king  to 
decide  specifically  upon  the  crime  of  which  they  were 
guilty  and  to  assign  their  punishment.  The  tribunal 
declared  that  the  prisoners  were  manifest  heretics,  ac- 
cording to  the  just  law   of  the  Holy  Church,   of  the 


The  Reformation  in  Sweden.  23 

Emperor  and  of  Sweden.  The  punishment  of  heresy 
was  death.  Resistance  to  an  archbishop  in  arms 
against  the  constituted  authorities  of  the  realm  pro- 
nounced to  be  heresy  !  Nothing  could  be  more  ab- 
surd !  But  when  a  brutal  tyrant  like  Christian  is  bent 
on  getting  rid  of  enemies  one  plea  is  as  good  as  an- 
other. In  this  case  no  doubt  Christian  felt  that  it  was 
better  to  direct  the  obloquy  which  would  follow  this 
wholesale  murder,  upon  the  church,  rather  than  draw 
it  directly  upon  himself,  by  resting  it  upon  the  much 
more  plausible  ground  of  treason. 

The  victims  were  immediately  notified  by  their 
appointed  executioner  of  their  coming  doom.  They 
applied  in  vain  for  the  last  consolations  of  religion. 
On  the  following  morning  the  question  was  proposed 
to  them  whether  it  was  not  heresy  to  confederate  and 
conspire  against  the  most  Holy  See  of  Rome.  They 
were  constrained  to  answer  that  it  was,  but  contended 
that  the  punishment  of  a  rebellious  archbishop,  could 
not  be  construed  as  conspiracy  against  the  Pope. 
But  their  admission  was  feigned  to  be  a  confession 
of  their  guilt. 

The  execution  of  the  nobles  took  place  on  Novem- 
ber 8,  just  one  week  after  the  coronation.  On  the 
morning  of  that  day  the  inhabitants  of  Stockholm 
were  forbidden  on  pain  of  death  to  leave  their  houses, 
before  a  signal  to  be  given  by  sound  of  trumpet.  The 
cannons  of  the  castle  were  loaded  and  others  so  placed 
as  to  command  the  principal  streets.  A  heavy  fore- 
boding oppressed  the  minds  of  the  citizens.  When 
the  clock  struck  twelve  the  trumpet  sounded,  and  the 
people  were  summoned  to  the  great  square  of  the  city. 
The  castle  gates  were  soon  after  opened,  the  draw- 
bridge lowered,  and  the  prisoners  brought  forth.    There 


24  The  Reformation  in   Sweden. 

were  Matthias,  Bishop  of  Strengness,  Vincentius,  Bishop 
of  Skara,  and  twelve  secular  nobles,  most  of  them  mem- 
bers of  the  State  Council,  including  Eric  Johnanson, 
the  father  of  Gustavus,  Joachim  Brahe,  whom  his  broth- 
er-in-law, Gustavus,  had  attempted  to  dissuade  from 
going  to  the  coronation,  the  burgomaster  and  town 
council  of  Stockholm,  and  many  burgesses.  A  Danish 
knight,  Nicholas  Lyke,  addressed  the  people,  telling 
them  not  to  be  terrified  at  what  they  were  about 
to  witness;  that  the  archbishop  had  three  times  on 
bended  knees  besought  the  king  that  the  sentence  of 
death  should  be  executed  upon  the  culprits,  and  that 
he  had  at  length  yielded  to  the  request;  but  Bishop 
Vincentius  interrupted  him  by  exclaiming  that  there 
was  not  a  word  of  truth  in  the  statement;  that  the 
king  could  do  nothing  without  lying  and  treachery, 
and  he  prayed  God  for  vengeance  on  his  tyranny.  The 
incident  shows  the  purpose  of  the  king  that  the  oblo- 
quy sure  to  follow  this  atrocious  massacre  should  fall 
upon  the  Archbishop  and  the  church. 

Christian,  who  beheld  these  scenes  from  an  open 
window  of  the  old  council  house,  now  gave  a  sign  that 
the  execution  should  begin.  Bishop  Matthias  was  the 
first  victim.  He  had  taken  with  him  to  the  coronation 
his  chancellor  Olaus  Petri  and  Laurentius  Petri  his 
brother,  who  as  the  venerable  bishop  stood  with  his 
hands  raised  up  to  heaven,  awaiting  the  blow  of  the  ex- 
ecutioner, rushed  forward  to  embrace  him.  Before  they 
could  reach  the  spot  his  head  rolled  upon  the  ground. 
The  two  brothers  could  not  restrain  their  indignation, 
and  loudly  proclaimed  that  it  was  an  inhuman  murder 
of  a  venerable  and  blameless  man.  They  were  seized 
and  about  to  share  the  fate  of  their  beloved  bishop, 
but  were  spared  when  a  German  who  had  studied  with 


The  Reformation  in  Sweden.  25 

them  at  Wittemberg  declared  that  they  were  not 
Swedes.  These  two  intrepid  brothers  became  the 
chief  agents  of  the  Swedish  Reformation. 

Bishop  Vincentius  was  next  beheaded,  then  the  lay 
nobles,  then  the  burgesses.  Olaus  Magnus,  who  was 
unaccountably  spared,  says  he  saw  ninety-four  persons 
beheaded,  and  expected  at  each  execution  to  be  sum- 
moned next.  When  Eric  Johnanson,  the  father  of 
Gustavus,  was  led  out  for  execution,  a  messenger  from 
Christian  came  to  him  to  offer  him  "  pardon,  grace  and 
honor;"  but  the  stout  old  patriot,  thinking  perhaps 
of  his  persecuted  and  fugitive  son,  refused  to  accept 
life  from  the  blood-stained  tyrant  and  cried  out — "No, 
for  God's  sake  let  me  die  with  these  honest  men,  my 
brethren,"  and  laid  his  head  upon  the  block.  Many 
were  hanged  or  subjected  to  other  horrible  deaths. 
A  contemporary  historian,  Zeigler,  states  that  Johan- 
ness  Magnus  was  crucified  with  circumstances  of  re- 
volting cruelty.  For  three  days,  as  new  victims  were 
enticed  out  of  their  hiding-places,  by  promises  of  par- 
don and  security,  the  slaughter  continued.  Some  were 
put  to  death  because  they  could  not  restrain  their  tears 
at  the  loss  of  relatives  and  friends.  No  element  of 
horror  was  absent  from  this  carnival  of  blood.  The 
retainers  of  the  great  nobles  who  had  been  executed 
were  dragged  from  their  horses  as  they  attempted  to 
escape  from  the  city,  and  hanged  in  such  numbers 
that  girths  and  stirrup  leathers,  were  used  as  substi- 
tutes for  halters.  A  violent  rain  mingling  with  blood 
in  the  gutters  of  the  streets,  tinged  everything  with 
the  hue  of  murder.  For  three  days  the  slaughtered 
bodies  remained  in  the  market  place;  after  which  they 
were  carried  out  to  the  South  suburb  of  the  city  and 
burned.     We  must  resort  to  the  worst  scenes  of  the 


26  The  Reformation  in  Sweden. 

Reign  of  Terror  in  France,  to  find  a  parallel  to  this 
brutal  slaughter. 

Nor  were  these  executions  confined  to  Stockholm. 
They  extended  to  Finland  where  Hemming  Gadd  suf- 
fered the  just  penalty  of  his  defection  from  the  cause 
to  which  he  had  given  the  best  energies  of  his  life,  by 
laying  his  head  upon  the  block  at  the  age  of  eighty. 
The  king's  whole  progress  from  Stockholm  to  Denmark 
was  marked  by  cruel  executions.  Gibbets  were  erected 
in  the  market  places  and  towns,  previous  to  his  arrival. 
At  a  monastery  where  he  had  ascertained  that,  the  ab- 
bot had  hidden  part  of  his  stores  in  the  woods,  he 
ordered  him  and  five  monks  to  be  thrown  into  a  stream 
and  drowned.  And  yet,  even  while  the  massacre  was 
in  progress  in  Stockholm,  Christian  had  sent  out  a  pro- 
clamation to  the  provinces,  stating  that  "  by  the  advice 
of  the  bishops,  prelates,  and  other  wise  men,  he  had 
punished  Sten  Sture's  confederates  as  heretics  under 
the  ban  of  the  Church,  but  that  he  meant  henceforth  to 
govern  the  country  mildly  and  peaceably  according  to 
the  laws  of  S.  Eric."  More  than  six  hundred  of  the 
highest  and  best  citizens  of  Sweden  had  been  slaugh- 
tered before  the  king  left  it  in  the  beginning  of  the 
year  1521. 

From  the  "  History  of  the  Revolution  in  Sweden,  oc- 
casioned by  the  Change  in  Religion  and  the  Alteration 
of  the  Government  in  that  Kingdom,"  by  the  Abbe 
Vertot,  and  translated  into  English  in  1729,  I  take  the 
following  account  of  the  massacre.  It  is  that  of  a  Ro- 
man Catholic  writer,  but  of  one  whose  whole  narrative 
shows  him  to  have  been  honest  and  dispassionate. 
His  book  could  scarcely  have  been  satisfactory  to  the 
Papists. 

After  describing  the  method  by  which  the  Bishop  of 


The  Reformation  in  Sweden.  27 

Linkoping  escaped  the  massacre,  he  thus  continues  his 
narrative:  "  Then  they  proceeded  to  the  execution  of 
the  lay  senators,  beginning  with  Eric,  the  father  of  Gus 
tavus.  The  consuls  and  magistrates  of  Stockholm  and 
ninety-four  lords  who  were  arrested  in  the  castle  under- 
went the  same  fate.  Yet  the  king  instead  of  being 
satisfied  with  the  death  of  so  many  illustrious  persons, 
was  extremely  vexed  that  some  lords  whom  he  had 
particularly  inserted  in  the  black  roll  had  escaped  his 
fury.  He  imagined  that  they  lay  .concealed  in  the  town, 
and  was  so  afraid  that  they  would  make  their  escape, 
and  so  desirous  to  arrest  Gustavus,  who  he  thought 
might  be  hid  in  some  house  in  the  city,  that  he  gave 
full  scope  to  his  vengeance;  he  resolved  to  confound 
the  innocent  with  the  guilty,  and  to  expose  the  town 
to  the  fury  of  the  soldiers.  As  soon  as  they  received 
those  bloody  orders,  they  fell  upon  the  people  who  had 
come  to  be  witnesses  of  that  bloody  spectacle,  and  pro- 
miscuously murdered  all  that  had  the  misfortune  to  be 
in  their  way.  Afterward  they  broke  into  the  principal 
houses  under  the  pretext  of  searching  for  Gustavus  and 
the  other  proscribed  lords.  The  citizens  were  stabbed 
in  the  arms  of  their  shrieking  wives,  their  houses  were 
plundered  and  the  honor  of  their  wives  and  daughters 
was  exposed  to  the  brutish  lust  of  the  soldiers,  who  by 
orders,  after  the  example  of  their  inhuman  sovereign, 
strove  to  out-do  each  other  in  the  wildest  and  most 
extravagant  barbarity. 

"  A  certain  gentleman  of  the  Swedish  nation  was  so 
sensibly  touched  by  the  moving  sight  of  so  many  de- 
plorable objects  that  he  could  not  restrain  the  im- 
petuosity of  his  grief,  nor  behold  such  scenes  of  horror 
without  bewailing  the  misery  of  his  country.  The 
furious  king  was  so  enraged  by  these  marks  of  com- 


28  The  Reformation  in  Sweden. 

passion,  which  his  guilty  conscience  interpreted  as 
secret  reproaches  of  his  cruelty,  that  he  commanded 
the  unfortunate  mourner  to  be  fastened  to  a  gibbet, 
his  privy  members  were  cut  off,  his  belly  ripped  up,  and 
his  heart  plucked  out,  as  if  pity  and  compassion  had 
been  the  foulest  of  crimes.  Afterward  the  king  pre- 
tending that  the  commiserator  had  rendered  himself 
unworthy  of  Christian  burial,  by  incurring  the  sentence 
of  excommunication,  ordered  his  body  to  be  taken  up 
and  exposed  in  the  public  place  among  the  mangled 
carcasses  of  his  ancient  friends.  He  issued  an  order 
that  no  person  should  presume  to  bury  any  of  these 
bodies  on  pain  of  death;  and  would  have  suffered  them 
to  lie  in  the  open  place,  as  a  terrible  monument  of  his 
vengeance,  if  the  stench  and  putrefaction  had  not  ob- 
liged him  to  command  them  to  be  taken  away.  But 
before  they  were  removed  he  could  not  forbear  going 
on  purpose  to  take  a  view  of  the  dismal  trophies  of  his 
fury.  At  last  he  ordered  them  to  be  carried  out  of  the 
city  and  be  burned,  that  even  death  itself  might  not 
exempt  them  from  a  second  punishment  which  he  pre- 
tended to  inflict  upon  them  as  excommunicated  per- 
sons."    (Hist.  p.  111-12.) 

An  historian  of  Sweden  ends  his  record  of  these 
tragic  events  in  these  words:  "While  these  horrors 
were  being  enacted,  a  noble  youth  wandering  in  the 
forests  of  Dalecarlia,  fleeing  before  the  emissaries  of 
the  tyrant,  and  hidden  from  his  pursuers,  sometimes 
in  a  rick  of  straw  and  sometimes  under  fallen  trees,  or 
in  cellars  and  mines,  was  preserved  by  providence, 
whose  great  soul  was  already  meditating  the  salvation 
of  his  country  and  eventually  achieved  it  by  the  aid 
of  God  and  Sweden's  commonalty." 


The  Reformation  in  Sweden.  29 

~L  .  ..     ,     Before  the  story  of  these  wanderings  is  re- 

Chnstian  s  J  & 

Character  sumed,  I  pause  to  say  a  few  words  upon  the 
and  Policy.     character  and  policy  of  King  Christian.     It 

is  not  necessary  to  say,  with  the  above  facts  before  us, 
that  he  was  one  of  the  most  base,  crafty  and  cruel 
tyrants  of  whom  history  makes  mention.  But  he  be- 
longs to  a  small  and  peculiar  class  of  tyrants.  He 
was  one  of  those  who  entertained  a  deadly  hatred  of 
the  aristocracy,  not  only  from  political  jealousy,  be- 
cause of  their  constant  attempts  to  limit  his  power, 
and  to  reach  up  to  his  level  or  to  overtop  him,  but 
from  a  coarseness  of  nature  and  of  manners,  though 
born  in  the  purple,  which  led  him  to  choose  his  boon 
companions,  and  indulge  his  licentious  passions  among 
the  lower  classes.  To  this  class  belonged  Ivan  the 
Terrible  of  Russia,  and  Peter  the  Great,  and  I  think  I 
may  add  the  first  Napoleon.  While,  therefore,  Chris- 
tian showed  himself  fierce  and  cruel  to  the  nobles  and 
the  cultivated  classes,  he  was  complaisant  in  his  gen- 
ial moods,  to  the  common  people,  and  secured  the 
passage  of  many  laws  for  their  welfare  and  improve- 
ment. For,  like  Peter  the  Great  of  Russia,  coarse  in 
his  tastes  and  endowed  with  great  abilities,  while  he  la- 
bored on  the  one  hand  to  depress  the  nobility,  he  ex- 
erted himself  on  the  other  to  develop  the  resources  of  his 
kingdoms,  and  to  lift  the  laboring  classes  to  a  higher 
level  of  intelligence  and  prosperity.  He  caused  good 
laws  to  be  passed  in  favor  of  the  commercial  and  labor- 
ing classes,  and  was  the  first  king  in  northern  Europe 
who  opened  schools  for  the  poor  of  his  dominions.  He 
ordered  the  burghers  of  all  the  large  cities  in  the 
three  Scandinavian  kingdoms,  under  the  penalty  of 
heavy  fines,  to  compel  their  children  to  learn  to  read, 
and  write  and  cipher.     He  also  caused   better  books 


30  The  Reformation  in  Sweden. 

than  were  then  in  use  to  be  prepared  and  printed  for 
the  public  schools.  He  made  the  first  attempt  to  es- 
tablish a  post  in  the  country  by  forming  a  band  of 
post  runners,  who,  both  in  winter  and  summer,  passed 
between  Copenhagen  and  the  chief  towns  of  his  do- 
minions. Wayside  inns  were  established  at  certain  dis- 
tances along  the  road,  and  the  system  was  established, 
which  still  prevails  in  Norway,  by  which  the  local  pop- 
ulation were  obliged  to  keep  the  roads  in  order  and 
to  supply  relays  of  horses  for  travelers.  He  forbade 
bishops  to  burn  witches,  and  to  claim  the  old  strand 
tax,  or  wreckage  of  stranded  vessels.  He  put  an  end 
to  selling  peasants  with  the  land.  And  strange  it 
sounds  to  hear  that  the  author  of  the  blood  bath  of 
Stockholm  was  very  much  interested  in  the  cultiva- 
tion of  flowers  and  vegetables,  and  by  the  advice  of  his 
queen  sent  for  and  employed  Flemish  gardeners.  He 
would  have  proved  in  all  probability  a  successful  ty- 
rant but  for  that  passion  of  cruelty  which  led  him  to 
outrages  too  intolerable  to  remain  unavenged,  and  that 
elaborate  craft  which  is  always  short-sighted  and  sure 
ultimately  to  entrap  its  master  in  the  toils  which  he 
weaves  for  others. 

After  visiting  his  brother-in-law  Joachin 
ings  and  Brahe  and  his  sister  Margaret,  Gustavus 
Dangers  of    repaired    to   his   father's   estate   of  Raefness 

and  there  lived  some  time  concealed.  He 
made  himself  known  to  the  old  Archbishop  Jacob 
Ulfson,  and  learned  from  him  that  the  peasants  in 
Dalecarlia  had  risen  against  the  government  of  Chris- 
tian but  had  been  defeated.  The  archbishop  advised 
him  to  submit  to  the  king,  and  informed  him  that  his 
name  was  included  in  the  amnesty  which  was  pro- 
claimed on  the  surrender  of  Stockholm.     "  Once, "  says 


The  Reformation  in  Sweden.  31 

Geijer,  "  after  such  a  conversation,  when  Jacob  Ulfson 
had  employed  his  eloquence  in  vain,  it  happened  that 
an  old  servant  of  Joachin  Brahe  presented  himself  at 
the  castle  of  Gripsholm,  and  rather  by  sighs  and  tears 
than  words  imparted  the  first  tidings  of  the  massacre 
at  Stockholm."  The  terrible  news  was  soon  confirmed. 
The  archbishop  was  dumb  from  horror  and  Gustavus 
prepared  for  flight. 

He  left  Raefness  on  horseback  on  the  26th  of  Novem- 
ber, 1520,  accompanied  by  a  single  servant  who  stole 
off  with  the  saddle-bags,  which  contained  all  his  ef- 
fects and  money.  He  chased  the  servant  and  secured 
the  saddle-bags,  but  the  thief  escaped.  When  he 
reached  the  frontier  of  Dalecarlia,  he  assumed  the  dress 
of  a  peasant  and  served  as  he  had  opportunity  as  a  farm 
laborer.  When  thus  employed  with  Anders  Pehrson, 
a  rich  miner  at  Rankhytta,  a  maid  servant  one  day 
caught  sight  of  a  gold-embroidered  collar  beneath  his 
jacket  and  informed  her  master  of  the  fact.  Looking 
attentively  in  his  face,  Pehrson  recognized  him  as  an 
old  school  fellow  at  Upsala;  but  while  not  disposed  to 
betray  him,  he  was  unwilling  to  harbor  a  refugee  so 
distinguished.  The  barn  at  which  Gustavus  threshed 
at  Rankhytta  is  preserved  as  a  state  monument. *  After 
breaking  through  the  ice  in  passing  over  a  ferry  and 
spending  the  night  shivering  in  a  peasant's  hut,  he  pre- 
sented himself  the  next  day  to  Arendt  Pehrson  who 
had  served  under  him  at  Brankyrka,  and  did  not  scruple 
to  discover  himself  to  his  old  companion  in  arms.     But 

*  King  Charles  XI.  visited  this  barn  in  1684.  It  is  now  marked  with  a 
monument  of  porphyry  with  this  inscription:  "  Here  worked  as  a  thresher 
Gustavus  Ericson  pursued  by  foes  of  the  realm  but  selected  by  providence  to 
be  the  Saviour  of  the  country.  His  descendant  in  the  sixth  generation,  Gus- 
tavus III.,  raised  this  memorial." 


32  The  Reformation  in  Sweden. 

Pehrson's  fear  of  Christian  was  stronger  than  his  sense 
of  generosity  and  honor;  and  though  he  received  Gus- 
tavus  with  seeming  cordiality,  he  resolved  to  deliver 
him  up  to  the  king's  lieutenant  in  the  neighborhood. 
After  Gustavus  had  retired  for  the  night  Pehrson  left 
the  house  and  returned  early  in  the  morning  with  the 
king's  lieutenant  and  a  body  of  thirty  men  to  take  him 
prisoner.  But  Gustavus  had  escaped  through  the  kind- 
ness of  Pehrson's  wife.  Suspecting  the  treachery  of 
her  lord  from  his  absence,  she  warned  her  guest  of 
his  danger,  provided  him  with  a  horse  and  sledge  and 
guide  and  sent  him  to  the  Swedsjo  parsonage.  For 
this  act  she  incurred  the  life-long  enmity  of  her  husband 
and  won  an  honored  name  in  the  annals  of  Sweden. 
Gustavus  remained  about  a  week  at  the  parsonage  of 
Swedsjo,  and  when  the  worthy  pastor  could  no  longer 
protect  him,  he  sent  him  secretly  to  Swen  Elfson,  a 
royal  forester  of  great  courage  and  presence  of  mind, 
living  at  Isala.  Elfson's  wife  was  no  unworthy  help- 
mate of  such  a  husband.  Some  of  the  lieutenant's  band 
came  in  search  of  her  guest  one  day  when  she  was 
making  bread,  and  Gustavus  was  warming  himself  at 
the  oven.  His  look  indicated  some  disquiet  and  might 
have  betrayed  him  had  she  not  given  him  a  smart  blow 
with  the  ladle  with  which  she  was  stirring  the  bread, 
and  asked  him  with  an  expression  of  impatience  whether 
he  had  never  seen  soldiers  before,  and  sent  him  off  to 
his  duties  in  the  barn.* 

When  he  was  obliged  to  shift  his  quarters  again — the 
neighborhood  being  beset  with  Danish  soldiers,  and  a 
persistent  search  made  for  him — Elfson  sent  him  away 
hidden   under  some   straw   in   a   light   wagon.     Some 

*  This  is  the  subject  of  one  of  the  series  of  frescoes  in  the  Cathedral  of 
Upsala,  which  commemorates  the  most  stiking  incidents  in  the  life  of  Gustavus. 


The  Reformation  in  Sweden.  33 

Danish  troopers  coming  up,  in  lieu  of  a  more  formal 
search,  thrust  their  spears  into  the  straw  and  wounded 
Gustavus.  The  blood  began  to  trickle  down  on  the 
snow,  and  would  certainly  have  discovered  his  hiding 
place  had  not  the  quick-witted  Elfson,  by  giving  his 
horse  unobserved  a  gash  in  the  leg  thus  diverted  at- 
tention from  the  point  whence  the  blood  issued. 

Having  thus  eluded  the  troops  by  the  dexterity  of 
his  guide,  Gustavus  arrived  safe  at  Marness.  Here  he 
lay  concealed  under  a  large  uprooted  fir-tree,  supplied 
with  food  by  the  peasants.  From  thence  he  penetrated 
farther  into  a  forest  and  took  up  his  abode  upon  a  hill, 
still  called  the  king's  hill,  which  was  surrounded  by  a 
morass,  and  again  found  a  hiding-place  under  an  old 
overturned  fir-tree.  On  the  green  before  the  Church 
at  Ratvic,  his  next  retreat,  he  first  publicly  addressed 
the  Dalesmen.  As  this  incident  leads  to  his  probable 
reasons  for  leaving  Dalecarlia,  and  points  to  the  plan 
which  he  had  devised  for  rousing  his  countrymen  to 
resist  the  tyrant  king,  it  may  be  well,  before  following 
him  farther  on  his  perilous  adventures,  to  dwell  for  a 
few  moments  on  the  probable  ground  upon  which  he 
rested  the  hope  that  he  might  then  commence  and  or- 
ganize a  patriotic  crusade,  which  would  ultimately 
drive  the  Danes  from  Sweden. 
n  7  ™/,-„    Dalecarlia — the  land  of  dales — is  a  beautiful 

Dalecarlia 

and  the  and  fertile  region  of  rich  valleys,  between 
Dalesmen.  high  rugged  mountains,  beneath  which  lie 
inexhaustible  mines  of  copper,  iron  and  silver.  The 
portion  of  it  in  the  midst  of  which  Upsala  is  situated 
is  for  many  leagues  a  fertile  and  lovely  plain,  produc- 
ing abundant  crops  and  sustaining  immense  herds  of  cat- 
tle.- The  indefinite  term  Dalecarlia  is  applied  also  to 
the  rugged  regions  which  stretch  to  the  North  and  the 


34  The  Reformation  in  Sweden. 

West  towards  Norway,  but  historical  Dalecarlia,  and 
as  it  appears  in  the  record  of  Gustavus,  includes  the 
two  Lans  or  provinces  of  Westeras  and  Upsala,  north 
and  west  of  the  province  of  Stockholm. 

It  has  been  already  stated  that  Gustavus  was  in- 
duced to  resort  to  Dalecarlia  from  his  confidence  in 
the  independent  character  of  the  Dalesmen.  But  be- 
yond this  general  confidence  in  the  character  of  the 
people,  there  were  historical  traditions  and  advantages 
which  would  naturally  lead  him  to  hope  that  his  ap- 
peal to  them  to  rise  and  throw  off  the  hated  yoke  of 
Christian  would  not  be  in  vain.  It  was  around  Upsala 
and  its  immediate  neighborhood  that  all  the  heroic  na- 
tional traditions,  pagan  and  christian,  gathered.  With- 
in one  Swedish  mile  of  that  city  was  the  old  Upsala, 
the  seat  of  the  first  god-king  Odin,  with  his  divine 
Aste,  his  council  of  gods,  with  his  successors  Njord 
and  Freya,  also  gods;  and  there,  descended  from  them, 
and  inheriting  the  honor  due  to  a  divine  parentage, 
reigned  the  first  mortal  king,  Fiolner.  There  are  the 
three  vast  mounds  under  which  the  first  three  kings 
Odin,  Njord,  and  Freya,  are  believed  to  be  buried,  and 
at  the  foot  of  which  for  many  centuries  the  kings  of 
Sweden  pronounced  their  oaths  and  received  their  con- 
secration. It  had  been  the  right  of  the  "upper"  Swedes, 
inherited  from  the  days  of  paganism,  to  dispose  of  the 
crown,  a  right  which  after  the  introduction  of  Chris- 
tianity became  the  subject  of  many  contests.  It  had 
been  the  custom  for  the  Upland  to  nominate  the  king; 
and  after  his  election  and  confirmation,  the  king  set 
out  upon  his  cricksgcit,  in  which  he  visited  all  the  pro- 
vinces, and  received  a  formal  recognition  of  him  as 
their  rightful  lord.  After  the  other  provinces  had  vin- 
dicated their  right  to  join  in  the  election,  the  justicia- 


The  Reformation  in  Sweden.  35 

ries,  the  authorized  representatives  of  the  provinces, 
gathered  on  the  meadow  of  Mora,  under  the  shadow  of 
the  mound  of  Odin.  The  mode  of  proceeding  formally 
by  the  authority  of  the  provinces  in  the  election  of  the 
king,  is  thus  described  by  Geijer: 

"  This  assembly  was  called  the  Mora  Thing.  The 
justiciaries  of  the  provinces  were  to  repair  thither, 
every  one  attended  by  twelve  discreet  and  well-skilled 
men,  with  the  assent  of  all  the  resident  inhabitants  of 
the  circuit.  The  voices  of  these  deputies  and  the  law- 
man (justiciary)  constituted  the  vote  of  the  province. 
The  justiciary  of  Upland  voted  first  and  then  the  rest 
in  their  order.  Thereupon  the  king  swore  to  the  peo- 
ple on  the  book,  with  the  holy  relics  in  his  hand,  the 
oath  embodied  in  the  law,  and  lifting  up  his  hand  prom- 
ised to  God  and  the  people  to  keep  what  he  had  sworn 
and  by  no  means  to  break  it,  but  rather  to  augment  it 
by  every  good  work,  and  especially  by  his  royal  word. 
In  like  manner  the  justiciaries  and  the  people  took 
their  oath  to  the  king,  and  by  this  were  bound  both 
young  and  old,  the  living  and  the  yet  unborn,  the 
friend  and  the  unfriend,  the  absent  as  well  as  the  pres- 
ent. This  was  called  to  swear  by  or  at  the  Mora  stone; 
and  an  old  record  states  that  immediately  after  his  elec- 
tion the  king  was  raised  upon  the  stone.  It  was  then 
incumbent  upon  the  king  to  ride  in  the  manner  before 
mentioned  on  his  ericksgeit,  or  as  it  is  called  in  the 
land  law,  '  to  ride  round  the  realm  with  the  sun.'" 

It  was  therefore  no  doubt  not  only  because  of  the 
sturdy  character  of  the  Dalesmen  that  Gustavus  be- 
took himself  to  that  region,  but  because  he  also  felt 
that  all  the  associations,  traditions  and  habits  of  the 
people  were  such  as  would  enable  him  to  fire  their 
hearts  with  a  patriotic  passion  and  ambition  to  redeem 


36  The  Reformation  in  Sweden. 

their  enslaved  country.  He  could  remind  them  that 
it  was  the  prerogative  of  Upland  to  cast  the  first  vote 
for  the  election  of  the  king;  and  that  Christian  had 
been  imposed  upon  them  without  the  formality  of  ap- 
pealing to  them  for  their  consent.  He  could  refer  to 
the  long  train  of  illustrious  kings  who  had  received 
their  consecration  at  the  Mora  stone;  and  this  usurper 
had  entered  into  Stockholm  by  force  of  arms  and  the 
slaughter  of  their  countrymen,  and  sat  there  upon  a 
throne  erected  over  a  pool  of  the  best  and  noblest 
blood  in  Sweden.  He  might  naturally  have  thought 
that  if  he  could  receive  their  recognition  as  the  cham- 
pion whom  they  selected  to  commence  the  work  of 
the  redemption  of  their  country,  such  a  designation 
might  wear  something  of  the  character,  in  the  eyes  of 
his  countrymen,  of  that  old  right  of  Upland  to  select 
and  elect  a  king,  which  the  other  provinces  were  merely 
summoned  to  sanction,  and  which  would  lead  to  his 
acceptance  by  the  kingdom  as  its  providentially  and 
historically  designated  leader  and  commander.  That 
such  thoughts  may  have  cheered  and  sustained  the 
hunted  and  heroic  fugitive,  appears  in  a  high  degree 
probable  from  the  fact  that  he  determined  to  make  his 
first  address  to  the  Dalesmen  in  the  Mora  region  and 
near  the  Mora  stone. 

His  Appeal  ^he  uPro°ted  fir-tree  which  furnished  his  hid- 
to  the  Dales-  ing  place  was  not  far  from  the  Mora  meadow. 
At  a  moment  when  Ratvick  seemed  to  be 
free  from  the  Danish  troops  who  were  tracking  him, 
Gustavus  issued  from  his  hiding-place  and  addressed 
the  people  on  the  green  before  the  church.  He  bade 
the  old  to  consider  well,  and  the  young  to  inform  them- 
selves, what  a  dreadful  tyranny  the  Danes  had  intro- 
duced into  Sweden;  and  how  much  they  themselves 


The  Reformation  in  Sweden.  37 

had  suffered  and  ventured  for  the  cause  of  their  be- 
loved country.  He  reminded  them  of  the  oppression 
of  Erickson,  and  of  the  heroic  and  successful  resist- 
ance to  it  of  Englebert.  And  now  all  Sweden  was 
again  under  the  heel  of  the  tyrant  of  Denmark,  and  its 
noblest  blood  had  been  shed  by  him.  His  own  father 
"had  chosen  rather  with  his  associates,  the  honor-lov- 
ing nobles,  to  die  than  to  be  spared  and  survive  them." 
"  If  they  would  now  save  their  land  from  slavery,  he 
would  put  himself  at  their  head,  and  fight  with  them 
for  the  freedom  of  the  realm."  This  appeal  did  not 
produce  the  impression  which  he  had  hoped  for.  The 
full  story  of  Christian's  massacre  had  not  yet  pene- 
trated the  Dales.  The  peasants  of  Ratvick  did  not 
personally  know  Gustavus,  and  his  family  was  not 
immediately  associated  with  their  history.  They  ex- 
pressed their  sympathy  with  him,  but  declined  to  com- 
mit themselves  to  any  action  until  they  should  have 
consulted  other  parishes. 

Still  less  encouraging  was  the  result  where  he  ex- 
pected it  would  be  the  greatest,  when  he  addressed  the 
peasants  on  the  Mora  meadow.  To  a  large  assembly 
gathered  there  he  gave  a  vivid  description  of  the  mas- 
sacre at  Stockholm,  spoke  of  his  own  share  in  the  ca- 
lamity, and  offered  himself  to  be  their  leader  "  to  avenge 
the  blood  that  had  been  spilt,  and  to  teach  the  tyrant 
that  Swedes  must  be  ruled  by  law,  not  ground  down  by 
cruelty."  We  can  readily  imagine  the  patriotic  ardor, 
with  which  he  must  have  made  such  an  appeal.  But 
only  a  few  of  the  peasants  were  in  favor  of  arming  at 
once;  the  majority  of  them  advised  him  to  go  further 
into  the  woods,  and  informed  him  that  he  was  sought 
and  tracked  by  many  bands  of  Danish  soldiers.  Ut- 
terly discouraged   by   this   reception,    Gustavus   again 


38  The  Reformation  in  Sweden. 

sought  still  more  distant  and  lonely  hiding-places,  and 
at  the  close  of  the  year  crossed  the  boundary  which 
separates  the  eastern  and  western  dales,  intending  to 
take  refuge  in  Norway.  But  soon  a  reaction  took  place 
in  the  minds  of  this  simple-hearted  peasantry.  The 
story  of  this  reaction  should  be  told  in  no  other  words 
than  those  of  Sweden's  great  historian,  Geijer.  There 
is  a  great  charm  in  the  beautiful  simplicity  of  the 
narrative,  and  a  romantic  interest  in  the  events,  in 
that  humble  and  narrow  sphere,  which  determined  the 
civil  and  religious  history  of  Sweden  for  the  ensuing 
centuries. 

"  Shortly  after  Gustavus  quitted  Ratvick  several 
Swedish  nobles  of  the  Danish  faction  arrived  there  for 
the  purpose  of  securing  his  person.  Some  peasants 
who  saw  them  coming  in  with  about  a  hundred  horses 
on  the  ice  of  lake  Silian,  hastened  to  the  church  and 
rang  the  bells.  The  wind  blew  towards  the  upper 
country;  a  great  concourse  of  people  assembled  as  was 
their  wont  on  occasions  of  common  peril,  and  the  stran- 
gers who  had  sought  refuge  partly  in  the  priest's  house, 
and  partly  in  the  tower,  which  long  after  showed  marks 
of  the  Dalesmen's  arrows,  could  only  ransom  their  lives 
by  the  assurance  that  they  would  do  no  harm  to  Gus- 
tavus. 

*  'About  the  new  year  there  arrived  at  Mora  Lawrence 
Olaverson,  a  captain  of  great  experience  in  the  service 
of  Sten  Sture  the  younger;  and  shortly  after  a  noble- 
man of  Upland  named  John  Michelson.  They  drew 
so  lively  a  picture  of  the  massacre  of  Stockholm  that 
the  bystanders  were  affected  to  tears.  The  ericksgeit 
of  the  king  they  said  was  at  hand;  his  way  would  be 
marked  by  the  gallows  and  wheel;  all  the  arms  of  the 
Swedish   peasants   would  be   wrested  from   them  and 


The  Reformation  in  Sweden.  39 

consumed;  and  if  their  limbs  were  left  to  them  un- 
mutilated,  a  stick  in  the  hand  would  be  the  only 
weapon  allowed  them  in  the  future;  the  imposition  of 
an  additional  tax  for  the  maintenance  of  the  new  troops 
was  daily  expected.  The  people  murmured  and  com- 
plained that  they  had  allowed  Gustavus  Erickson  to 
depart.  In  this  their  new  guests  told  them  they  did 
wrong;  such  a  noble  leader  they  stood  much  in  need 
of.  Many  a  worthy  Swedish  warrior  was  now  wan- 
dering like  themselves,  fugitives  in  the  forest,  who 
would  never  submit  to  the  dominion  of  the  Danes,  but 
lead  a  free  life  so  long  as  they  might,  until  Sweden 
should  receive  from  God,  a  captain  and  a  chief  for 
whom  they  would  cheerfully  put  to  hazard  their  life  and 
welfare.  "  The  Dalecarlians  now  sent  off  runners  on 
snow  skates  to  seek  out  Gustavus  day  and  night  and 
bring  him  back.  They  found  him  in  the  hamlet  of  Seln 
in  the  upper  part  of  the  parish  of  Lima,  whence  he  in- 
tended to  seek  a  pathway  across  the  mountains  of 
Norway. 

He  returned  in  their  company  to  Mora,  where  the 
principal  and  most  influential  yeomen  of  all  the  parishes 
in  the  eastern  and  western  dales  elected  him  to  be 
"  Lord  and  chieftain  over  them  and  the  command  of  the 
realm  of  Sweden."  Some  scholars  who  had  arrived  from 
Westeras  brought  with  them  new  accounts  of  the  tyr- 
anny of  Christian.  Gustavus  placed  these  students  in 
the  midst  of  a  circle  of  the  peasants  to  tell  their  story 
and  answer  the  questions  of  the  crowd.  Old  men  rep- 
resented it  as  a  comfortable  sign  for  the  people  that  as 
often  as  Gustavus  discoursed  to  them  the  north  wind 
always  blew,  which  was  an  old  token  to  them  that  God 
would  grant  them  a  good  success.  Sixteen  active 
peasants  were  appointed  to   be   his   body  guard;   and 


40  The  Reformation  in  Sweden. 

two  hundred  young  men  were  called  his  foot-goers. 
The  chronicles  reckon  his  reign  from  this  small  begin- 
ning; while  the  Danes  and  their  abettors  in  Stockholm 
long  after  continued  to  speak  of  him  and  his  party  as  a 
band  of  robbers  in  the  woods. 

It  would  be  interesting,  if  our  limits  allowed,  to 
trace  the  gradual  development  of  this  band  of  peasants 
into  a  well-organized  army  under  the  skillful  hand  of 
Gustavus,  and  to  follow  the  successive  steps  by  which 
he  gained  the  confidence  and  the  enthusiastic  affection 
and  admiration  of  his  countrymen,  and  reached  a 
position  of  commanding  influence  and  power.  He  at 
once  displayed  all  the  qualities  of  a  great  commander 
and  administrator.  In  the  beginning  of  February,  he 
marched  to  the  great  copper  mine,  took  its  superin- 
tendent prisoner,  seized  upon  all  the  king's  and  the 
Danish  property  in  the  place,  and  made  his  first  ban- 
ners from  the  silks  that  were  captured.  Soon  after  he 
returned  to  that  place  with  1,500  men,  and  from  that 
time  great  and  rapid  accessions  to  his  ranks  took  place. 
The  king's  troops  were  sent  out  to  meet  him,  but  were 
beaten  and  driven  back.  As  Gustavus  passed  into 
Westmanland,  the  people  flocked  to  his  standard;  and 
when  on  S.  George's  day,  the  23rd  of  April,  he  orga- 
nized and  reviewed  his  army,  it  was  found  to  be  15,000 
strong.  At  this  point  of  his  progress,  he  issued  a  for- 
mal proclamation  of  war  against  Christian.  In  it  he 
declared  that  Christian  had  not  lawfully  been  elected 
king;  if  he  had  been,  he  had  forfeited  his  throne  by  his 
atrocious  tyranny  and  his  violation  of  the  laws  of  Sweden ; 
and  he  proudly  referred  to  the  fact  that  he  had  never 
sworn  allegiance  to  him,  and  that  he  took  up  arms 
against  him  without  violating  a  plighted  faith.  This 
last  fact  gave  him  a  prodigious  influence  with  his  coun- 


The  Reformation  in  Sweden.  41 

trymcn.     They  gathered  about  him  under  the  influence  . 
of  patriotic  passion  and  personal  devotion  which  en- 
abled   him,    after   two   years   of  varied   successes    and 
reverses,  to  enter  Stockholm  in  triumph  on  the  21st  of 
June,  1523. 

After  the  massacre  of  Stockholm  and  the 
cution  of  departure  of  Christian  to  Denmark,  the  Bish- 
Slaghec.  opg  siao;hec  and  Beldnake  were  appointed 
administrators  of  the  kingdom  in  his  absence.  But 
Slaghec  soon  left  Sweden,  having  been  advanced  to  the 
Archbishopric  of  Lund,  the  primacy  of  the  Danish 
Church.  But  he  did  not  long  enjoy  the  honors  of  that 
envied  station — the  highest  to  which  a  northern  ec- 
clesiastic could  be  raised.  On  the  first  news  of  the 
massacre  at  Stockholm,  Johannes  Magnus,  Canon  of 
Linkoping,  and  afterwards  Archbishop  of  Upsala,  had 
hastened  to  Rome  to  demand  vengeance  against  Chris- 
tian. The  execution  of  two  Bishops  so  aggravated  the 
enormity  of  that  crime  in  the  eyes  of  the  Pope  that, 
though  unwilling  to  strike  the  king  on  account  of  the 
emperor,  he  would  not  refuse  inquiry.  M.  D.  Potentia, 
a  Neapolitan  monk  was  dispatched  for  the  purpose  with 
secret  orders  to  view  the  matter  in  a  light  as  favorable 
as  possible  for  the  king;  while  Christian,  advised  of 
his  danger  and  determined  to  save  himself,  resolved  to 
sacrifice  Archbishop  Slaghec,  in  order  that  he  might  be 
personally  exculpated. 

Slaghec  had  been  in  the  possession  of  his  dignity 
but  two  months  when  he  was  summoned  to  Copen- 
hagen to  answer  to  the  charge  of  having  been  the  in- 
stigator of  the  massacre.  The  charge  was  readily 
proved.  He  was  found  guilty  and  sentenced  to  death. 
On  the  22nd  of  June,  1522,  the  sentence  was  executed. 
The  king  had  left  Copenhagen,  and  given  orders  that 


42  The  Reformation  in  Sweden. 

the  execution  should  take  place  during  his  absence. 
The  scene  of  it  was  the  old  Market-place  or  Square  of 
the  city.  A  gallows  was  erected  and  a  pile  of  fagots 
heaped  up  near  the  Council  House,  and  here  in  his  rich 
robes,  the  guilty  tool  and  victim  of  the  guiltier  king 
was  conducted.  Inasmuch  as  his  was  the  double  crime 
of  treason  against  the  State  and  of  spiritual  treason 
against  the  Vicar  of  Christ,  in  executing  two  of  his 
spiritual  servants,  he  was  forced  up  towards  the  gal- 
lows, as  if  to  suffer  upon  it,  and  then  led  to  the  blaz- 
ing pile,  where,  with  no  sympathy  from  the  crowd,  he 
was  burned. 

Theproceed-  While  Gustavus  was  making  progress  in  the 
ingsandDe-  North,  Christian  was  pursuing  those  harsh 
of°nChris-  and  cruel  measures  which  were  well  calcu- 
tian.  lated  to  hasten  his  overthrow.    He  had  caused 

the  mothers  and  wives  and  children  of  the  most  distin- 
guished Barons  of  Stockholm  to  be  conveyed  to  Den- 
mark. Among  these  were  the  mother  and  the  two 
sisters  of  Gustavus,  whom  Christian,  in  spite  of  the  re- 
monstrances and  entreaties  of  his  wife,  threw  into  a 
dungeon.  Here  they  perished,  and  as  it  was  believed 
and  charged  by  Gustavus,  by  violence.  Christian  also 
issued  an  order  to  his  generals  and  officials  to  put  to 
death  all  Swedes  of  distinction  who  should  fall  into 
their  hands.  A  massacre  similar  to  that  at  Stockholm, 
though  not  on  so  extensive  a  scale,  only  for  want  of 
sufficient  victims,  was  by  his  direction  perpetrated  at 
Abo,  the  capital  of  Finland. 

After  leaving  Sweden  to  be  thus  harried  and  op- 
pressed, Christian  made  a  visit  with  much  -splendor  to 
his  brother-in-law,  Charles  V.,  in  the  Netherlands,  to 
secure  the  dowry  of  his  Queen,  and  to  solicit  his  aid 
Duke  Frederic  of  Holstein.     The  ob- 


The  Reformation  in  Sweden.  43 

ject  which  he  had  in  view  seemed  definite,  but  the 
means  which  he  employed  were  various  and  contradic- 
tory, and  such  as  would  inevitably  bring  about  failure 
and  defeat.  He  aimed  to  depress  the  power  of  the  no- 
bility and  clergy;  to  elevate  and  gratify  and  govern 
through  the  burghers  and  peasants;  to  destroy  the  as- 
cendency of  the  Hanse  towns,  and  to  annex  Holstein, 
and  so  utterly  to  crush  and  terrify  Sweden  as  that  it 
should  lie  henceforth  passive  under  his  sway.  But  his 
measures  were  fitful,  incoherent  and  inconsistent.  He 
seemed  mastered  by  a  feverish  restlessness,  which  led 
him  into  projects  and  policies  which  crossed  and  nul- 
lified each  other  and  led  to  his  ultimate  ruin.  He  made 
the  Papal  bull  the  pretext  for  his  cruelty  in  Sweden, 
and  yet  on  his  return  to  Denmark  instituted  measures 
for  the  introduction  of  the  Reformation  into  that  king- 
dom. He  even  opened  a  correspondence  with  Luther, 
and  invited  Carlstadt  to  Copenhagen;  and  when  in- 
vestigation into  the  massacre  of  Stockholm  was  threat- 
ened, made  application  to  the  Pope  for  the  canoniza- 
tion of  Scandinavian  saints.  He  raised  the  infamous 
Slaghec  to  the  Archbishopric  of  Lund,  and  afterward, 
as  we  have  seen,  threw  upon  him  the  responsibility  of 
the  massacre  of  Stockholm  and  consigned  him  to  the 
stake. 

One  year  after  the  execution  of  Slaghec,  when  Chris- 
tian was  levying  a  new  tax  upon  the  kingdom  for  the 
prosecution  of  the  unpopular  war  against  Holstein,  the 
dissatisfaction  of  the  kingdom  came  to  a  head,  and  the 
nobles  in  council  at  Viborg,  on  the  20th  of  January, 
1523,  drew  up  a  deed  of  renunciation  of  his  authority, 
and  declared  that  they  had  chosen  Frederic,  his  uncle, 
Duke  of  Holstein,  to  fill  the  vacant  throne.  This  act 
of  renunciation  enumerated  his  crimes  and  his  atrocious 


44  The  Reformation  in  Sweden. 

tyranny,  and  declared  that  obedience  to  his  intolerable 
rule  had  ceased  to  be  a  duty.  The  craven  and  abject 
spirit  in  which  the  king  pleaded  to  be  allowed  a  further 
trial,  and  threw  the  blame  of  his  maladministration 
upon  his  advisers,  and  promised  the  most  absolute 
conformity  thereafter  to  the  will  of  the  council,  ex- 
hibits that  cowardly  nature  which  so  often  leads  to 
cruelty.  Although  the  powerful  province  of  Sealand 
and  the  nobles  of  Scania  took  an  oath  of  fidelity  to  the 
king,  he  did  not  dare  to  trust  them,  or  even  to  rely 
upon  his  army.  He  collected  twenty  ships  in  which 
he  placed  the  public  records,  the  treasures  and  the 
crown  jewels  and  his  wife  and  child.  The  evil  genius 
of  the  king,  Sigbert,  the  mother  of  one  of  his  mistresses, 
who  had  either  prompted  or  approved  of  all  his  cruel- 
ties, and  exercised  a  most  sinister  influence  over  him, 
was  conveyed  to  a  ship  in  a  chest,  that  she  might  es- 
cape the  vengeance  of  the  people,  by  whom  she  was 
vehemently  abhorred.  Thus  ended  the  dreadful  reign 
of  Christian  II.  in  Denmark  and  Sweden. 

It  may  be  well  to  follow  the  fortunes  of  Christian  to 
their  wretched  end.  He  first  fled  to  Holland,  and  re- 
mained there  several  years.  In  1 53 1,  he  landed  in  Nor- 
way with  an  army  of  Dutch  and  Germans,  and  was  well 
received  by  the  inhabitants.  But  the  treaty  made  by 
Frederic  with  Sweden  and  Lubeck,  enabled  him  to 
overthrow  the  army  of  Christian  and  to  take  him  pris- 
oner. Contrary  to  the  pledge  of  his  uncle's  commander, 
who  had  promised  him  freedom,  Christian  was  carried  to 
Sonderberg  in  the  lonely  island  of  Als,  and  thrown  into 
a  dark  dungeon  below  the  tower.  In  that  wretched 
prison  in  which  light  and  air  could  penetrate  only 
through  a  small  grated  window,  which  served  at  the 
same  time  for  the  transmission  of  the  scanty  food  fur- 


The  Reformation  in  Sweden.  45 

nished  him,  Christian  spent  seventeen  years  of  his  life, 
with  a  half-witted  and  deformed  Norwegian  dwarf  for 
his  attendant  and  sole  companion.  A  striking  mod- 
ern picture  of  Christian  and  his  companion  in  prison, 
in  the  picture  gallery  of  the  palace  at  Copenhagen, 
leaves  an  ineffaceable  impression  upon  the  mind  of  the 
beholder. 

On  the  death  of  Frederic  I.,  his  son,  Christian  III., 
wished  that  he  might  be  released,  on  the  pledge  that 
he  would  retire  to  Germany  and  make  no  more  efforts 
to  recover  the  throne.  But  the  Danish  nobles  were 
quite  unwilling  to  rely  upon  his  pledges,  and  all  the 
relief  that  Christian  III.  could  obtain  for  him  was  a  re- 
moval to  the  Kallunberg  castle,  where  he  was  permitted 
to  pass  the  last  ten  years  of  his  life  in  comparative 
comfort,  and  where  he  died  in  1559,  within  a  few  months 
of  his  namesake,  Christian  III. 

After  the  capture  of  Westeras  and  an  un- 
comes  Re-    successful  attack  upon  Upsala,  a  convoca- 

gent,  Aug.  tjon  Qf  t]ie  partisans  of  Gustavus,  which 
24,  1 52 1.  r 

claimed  to  represent  the  States  of  Sweden, 

took  place  at  Wadstena  on  the  24th  of  August,  1521. 
There  were  present  sixty  nobles  and  many  representa- 
tives of  the  burghers  and  the  clergy.  It  was  here,  at  a 
critical  crisis  of  his  life,  that  Gustavus  made  one  of  those 
speeches  which  turned  the  doubtful  balance  of  events 
decidedly  in  his  favor.  A  brief  summary  of  it  has  been 
preserved,  sufficient  to  suggest  how  stirring  must  have 
been  such  an  appeal,  from  one  whose  heroic  resistance 
to  the  tyrant,  and  whose  romantic  adventures  and 
splendid  personality  must  have  vividly  impressed  the 
hearts  and  the  imaginations  of  a  people  whom  in- 
dignation had  rendered  ready  for  self-sacrifice  and  suf- 
fering.    He  told  them  that  there  were  but  two  courses 


46  The  Reformation  in  Sweden. 

for  them  to  pursue:  "  If  they  were  content  to  be  forever 
slaves  to  the  Dane,  and  to  abandon  their  possessions 
to  the  avarice  of  a  greedy  neighbor;  if  they  had  hearts 
to  see  the  remaining  flower  of  their  nobility  cut  off, 
and  could  endure  that  Sweden,  which  had  not  only 
supported  its  own  independence,  but  had  given  the 
law  to  other  lands,  should  degenerate  into  a  Danish 
province — then,  indeed,  they  had  only  to  sit  down 
quietly  and  watch  the  footsteps  of  the  tyrant.  But  if 
they  loved  freedom — if  they  would  avenge  the  innocent 
blood  that  had  run  so  piteously  in  their  streets — if  their 
houses  and  possessions  were  dear  to  them — if  they 
would  prove  themselves  worthy  sons  of  their  renowned 
fathers,  then  they  would  take  the  sword,  and  not  let  it 
sleep  until  they  had  dethroned  the  tyrant  and  regained 
the  crown  which  he  had  wrested  from  their  hands. 
Circumstances  were  most  favorable  to  their  enterprise. 
Christian  was  hated  by  his  own  people,  and  all  his  at- 
tention was  required  to  secure  himself  in  his  hereditary 
dominions.  He — Gustavus — had  already,  with  the  help 
of  the  Dalesmen,  subdued  a  large  portion  of  the  realm, 
and  the  chief  fortresses  were  now  so  hard  beset  that 
they  could  not  offer  a  long  resistance.  The  victory 
would  soon  be  complete  if  they  would  only  combine 
their  councils  and  unite  their  strength." 

The  appeal  was  decisive.  The  estates  immediately 
offered  the  crown  to  Gustavus.  "  That  was  the  only 
way,"  they  said,  "  to  repay  him  for  his  services,  and  to 
save  the  kingdom."  But  Gustavus  had  the  prudence 
and  the  foresight  which  made  him  see  that  his  influence 
at  that  stage  of  his  progress  would  be  greater  if  he  de- 
clined the  crown  and  accepted  a  regency,  which  would 
in  effect  be  kingship  in  all  but  the  name.  He  replied 
that  "he  had  taken  up  arms  from  zeal  and  compassion 


The  Reformation  in  Sweden.  47 

for  the  people.  The  name  of  king"  had  already,  from 
the  abuse  of  it,  begun  to  have  a  hateful  sound.  They 
should  unite  their  strength,  and  first  place  themselves 
in  a  condition  to  choose  a  native  Swedish  king.  Then 
whomsoever  they  should  deem  fit  for  the  honor,  to  him 
he  would  show  all  loyalty  and  obedience." 

From  this  period  the  military  successes  of 
proclaimed  Gustavus  became  more  decided.  After  two 
Ki»s,  Jiine  years  of  siege,  Stockholm  surrendered.  Just 
previous  to  that  event,  June  7,  1523,  a  State 
Council  assembled  at  Strengness,  when  the  newly 
elected  Archbishop,  Knut,  suggested  that  it  was  now 
necessary  to  choose  a  king,  since  Christian  had  ceased 
to  be  king  even  of  Denmark.  All  the  Council  with 
one  voice  declared  for  Gustavus.  "  He  received  their 
congratulations  with  a  grave  countenance,  thanked 
his  countrymen  for  their  love  and  confidence,  and  said 
that  his  services  did  not  merit  so  great  a  reward,  and 
that  he  was  weary  of  the  burden  and  anxieties  he  had 
already  undergone.  He  begged  them  to  choose  one 
of  the  old  knights  and  nobles  then  present,  and  he 
would  give  him  his  truth  and  allegiance."  Tears  and 
exclamations  and  remonstrances  interrupted  his  ad- 
dress. It  is  a  curious  fact,  in  connection  with  the  part 
which  he  subsequently  took  and  was  then  prepared  to 
take  in  the  Reformation  of  Sweden,  that  he  at  last 
consented  to  accept  the  crown  upon  the  pressing 
instances  of  the  Papal  Legate. 

Frederic  I.  of  Denmark  wrote  to  the  estates  of 
Sweden  that  in  accordance  with  the  stipulations  of  the 
treaty  of  Calmar,  he  should  be  acknowledged  King  of 
Sweden.  They  replied  that  they  had  already  elected 
Gustavus  Erickson  to  be  Sweden's  king-.  Thus  was 
the  union  of  the  treaty  of  Calmar  dissolved,  after  it 


43  The  Reformation  in  Sweden. 

had  lasted  126  years.  Previous  to  the  surrender  of 
Stockholm,  the  armies  of  Gustavus  had  been  success- 
ful in  expelling  the  Danes  from  the  southern  part  of 
Sweden.  On  midsummer  eve,  the  21st  of  June,  Gus- 
tavus made  his  entrance  into  Stockholm.  Before  the 
end  of  the  year,  Finland  was  brought  into  obedience. 
The  country  was  thus  freed  from  foreign  enemies, 
but  it  was  full  of  the  elements  of  discord  and  dissat- 
isfaction. That,  in  the  circumstances  under  which 
Gustavus  ascended  the  throne,  he  was  able  to  main- 
tain his  position,  to  pacify  the  kingdom,  and  develop 
its  resources,  and  above  all,  that  without  any  popular 
movement  towards  the  Reformation,  he  was  able  to 
establish  it  by  virtue  of  his  overmastering  character 
and  against  immense  obstacles,  without  and  within 
his  kingdom,  justly  entitles  him  to  the  place  which 
has  been  assigned  him,  by  all  who  have  studied  his 
career,  as  one  of  the  greatest  men  in  the  whole  com- 
pass of  European  history. 


CHAPTER    III. 

FROM   THE   ELECTION  OF  GUSTAVUS  TO  THE   THRONE, 
TO  HIS  COLLISION  WITH  THE  CLERGY,   I  526. 

THE  enthusiasm  with  which  the  Estates  sanc- 
tioned the  proposition  of  Canute,  the  Provost 
of  the  Cathedral  of  Westeras,  that  Gustavus  should 
be  elected  king,  might  have  animated  him  to  accept 
an  office,  the  enormous  difficulties  of  which  he  could 
not  but  have  foreseen,  but  which  his  patriotic  love  of 
country  would  not  allow  him  to  evade.  Even  if  he 
had  contemplated  the  task  with  passionate  repug- 
nance, he  could  not  have  found  it  in  his  heart  to 
decline  a  position  which  his  own  agency  had  made 
it  necessary  that  some  one  should  fill,  and  which  he 
must  have  known  could  not  have  been  filled  so  worth- 
ily and  efficiently  by  any  one  as  by  himself.  It  is  not 
often  that  a  crown  has  been  pressed  upon  any  one 
with  such  genuine  and  affectionate  importunity.  The 
following  is  the  account  of  this  remarkable  scene  given 
by  Vertot: 

"The  speaker  of  the  Estates  (Provost  Canute)  rep- 
resented to  the  Assembly  the  absolute  necessity  of 
proceeding  speedily  to  the  election  of  a  king.  Then 
he  employed  all  his  art  in  painting  forth  the  qualities 
of  an  excellent  Prince,  one  that  was  vigilant,  labori- 
ous, full  of  courage,  and  endowed  with  a  sufficient 
stock  of  valor  and  prudence  to  oppose  the  unjust  pre- 


50  The  Reformation  in  Sweden. 

tensions  of  the  Danes  to  the  Swedish  crown:  that  in 
this  description  they  might  see  and  take  notice  of  the 
picture  of  Gustavus.  He  concluded  that  after  all  the 
services  which  the  Administrator  had  done  to  the 
State,  and  the  illustrious  proofs  he  had  given  of  his 
extraordinary  endowments  and  virtues,  they  were 
obliged,  in  gratitude  to  him,  and  in  justice  to  the  in- 
terests of  those  they  represented,  to  confer  the  royal 
title  and  authority  upon  their  benefactor. 

"This  discourse  was  received  with  an  universal 
applause.  The  nobility  and  commons,  transported 
with  their  zeal  and  affection,  prevented  the  senators 
and  deputies.  The  whole  assembly  proclaimed  with 
a  loud  voice,  '  Gustavus,  King  of  Sweden  ! '  It  was 
impossible  to  gather  the  votes,  or  to  proceed  accord- 
ing to  the  usual  forms  observed  in  such  cases.  His 
praises  were  echoed  through  the  whole  convention; 
he  was  styled  the  savior  and  deliverer  of  his  country. 
The  peasants  and  burghers,  mingling  confusedly  with 
the  deputies,  neglecting  all  marks  of  distinction,  and 
even  forgetting  the  respect  they  owed  to  the  senators 
and  other  lords,  struggled  and  crowded  to  approach 
the  king.  The  name  of  Gustavus  was  repeated  by 
every  mouth;  he  was  the  object  of  every  eye;  and  all 
in  general  endeavored  to  express  their  joy  at  his  elec- 
tion, and  to  congratulate  their  own  happiness  in  hav- 
ing an  opportunity  to  contribute  to  his  advancement." 
Difficulties  The  town  of  Strengness  was  itself  a  proof 
of  Melting's  of  one  of  the  enormous  difficulties — the  des- 
Podtion.  elation  of  the  country — which  he  was  called 
upon  immediately  to  confront.  It  had  become  almost 
a  ruin  through  the  ravages  of  civil  war.  This  condi- 
tion of  the  town,  suggestive  of  that  of  the  whole 
country,  had  impressed  the  council  with  the  convic- 


The  Reformation  in  Sweden.  51 

tion  that  there  was  no  choice  but  between  utter 
national  ruin,  and  the  overthrow  of  the  tyranny  of 
Christian.  This  conviction  was  deepened  when  Gus- 
tavus  made  his  public  entry  into  Stockholm.  Half  of 
the  houses  were  empty;  and  of  the  population  of  the 
city  on  the  accession  of  Christian  only  one  fourth  re- 
mained. To  fill  up  the  gap  the  king  invited  the 
citizens  of  other  towns  to  settle  there,  and  offered 
them  great  inducements  to  do  so.  This  invitation 
he  was  compelled  to  renew  twelve  years  after,  ''see- 
ing," he  said,  "  that  Stockholm  had  not  revived  from 
the  days  of  King  Christian."  And  these  were  speci- 
mens of  the  condition  of  most  of  the  towns  and  rural 
estates  of  the  lower  and  more  populous  portion  of  the 
kingdom. 

The  power  of  the  great  lords  was  another  obstacle 
in  the  way  of  the  speedy  settlement  of  the  kingdom. 
One  effect  of  the  union  of  Sweden  to  Denmark  had 
been  greatly  to  increase  their  influence.  According 
to  the  terms  of  the  union,  the  Council,  in  the  absence 
of  the  king,  governed  the  kingdom.  As  members  of 
the  Council,  the  great  nobles  who  composed  it  had  con- 
stant opportunities  to  increase  their  exclusive  privi- 
leges, to  enlarge  their  estates,  and  to  become  more 
independent  of  the  supreme  but  distant  authority  of 
the  king.  Many  of  the  crown  fiefs  had  been  appropri- 
ated by  them  to  their  own  use,  and  were  thus  in  the 
inevitable  process  of  passing  into  their  permanent  pos- 
session. Many  of  the  difficulties  of  the  king  arose  from 
this  source.  With  characteristic  foresight  he  saw  that 
this  contest  with  the  nobles  for  the  recovery  of  the 
crown  and  church  lands  would  at  once  arise;  and  ac- 
cordingly he  availed  himself  of  the  first  enthusiasm 
created  by  his  wonderful   success   to  propose   to   the 


52  The  Reformation  in  Sweden. 

Council  "  whether  he  might  not  freely  dispose  of  the 
crown  fiefs,  as  the  law  book  declares,  without  ill  will?" 
During  the  union,  and  especially  during  the  long  ab- 
sence of  King  John,  the  kingdom  seemed  about  to  be 
parceled  out  into  principalities,  under  a  few  of  the 
great  magnates  who  were  most  powerful  in  the  Coun- 
cil. This  state  of  things  it  was  impossible  for  the  king 
immediately  to  change.  The  General  Council  at  Stock- 
holm had  constituted  branches  in  the  various  provinces, 
in  which  some  members  of  the  Central  Council  sat 
and  exercised  a  predominant  influence.  Thus  Gustavus 
found  himself  at  once  confronted  with  an  oligarchy 
which  had  spread  a  net-work  of  influence  and  of  organ- 
ization over  all  the  kingdom,  and  the  members  of  which 
had  possessed  themselves  of  a  large  portion  of  the 
Royal  domains.  These  it  was  necessary  to  recover 
without  exciting  to  revolt  the  powerful  lords,  whose 
loyalty  was  the  condition  of  continued  possession  of  the 
throne.  It  was  an  immense  difficulty.  How  wisely, 
by  personal  influence,  by  intimidation,  and  by  the 
stern  exercise  of  power,  where  it  was  called  for,  he  so 
far  overcame  it  as  to  recover  most  of  the  crown  lands, 
and  to  become,  not  the  mere  agent  of  the  great  lords, 
but  their  master,  we  shall  see  in  the  progress  of  the 
history. 

The  turbulent  independence  of  the  people  caused  the 
king  in  the  commencement  of  his  reign  frequent  and 
most  vexatious  difficulties.  The  circumstances  in  which 
the  people  had  been  called  to  intervene  in  opposition 
to  the  Danish  kings,  had  made  them  exacting  and  tur- 
bulent and  difficult  to  satisfy.  This  was  especially  the 
case  with  the  Dalesmen.  At  the  call  of  Englebert 
they  had  expelled  the  tyrant  Ericson,  and  made  their 
leader   Regent  of  the  kingdom.     From  that   period, 


The  Reformation  in  Sweden.  53 

proud  of  their  success,  they  had  put  forth  many  pre- 
tensions. The  native  Regents,  Englebert,  and  the 
three  successive  Stures,  and  the  one  native  king, 
Charles  Canutson,  were  compelled  to  profess  to  de- 
pend wholly  on  their  support.  In  order  to  protect 
themselves  from  rival  aspirants  to  their  office,  they 
found  it  necessary  to  flatter  and  conciliate  the  people, 
by  acknowledging  their  dependence  on  them,  and  by 
conformity  to  their  democratic  tastes  and  habits.  The 
threatened  partition  of  the  kingdom  among  the  great 
lords  led  to  a  counter-development  and  manifestation 
of  popular  power.  During  the  troubled  times,  when 
the  Danish  government  was  powerless,  the  people  in 
the  provinces  often  assumed  self-government,  took  up 
arms  and  formed  alliances  when  they  were  dissatisfied 
with  the  local  lords  or  authorities  placed  over  them  by 
the  Regent.  This  was  the  case  more  frequently  in 
upper  than  in  lower  Sweden.  Hence,  in  consequence 
of  the  immense  services  which  the  Dalecarlians,  and 
Northern  Sweden  generally,  had  rendered  to  Gusta- 
vus,  he  found  them  subsequently  insubordinate,  clam- 
orous for  special  privileges,  and  unwilling  to  bear 
their  proportionate  burdens  of  taxation  and  of  mili- 
tary service. 

The  influence  of  the  Church  too  was  decidedly  adverse 
to  the  person  and  policy  of  the  king.  The  Church  was 
in  fact  a  foreign  power  established  in  the  kingdom, 
rather  than  a  constituent  part  of  it.  Its  great  dignitaries 
had  generally  been  partisans  of  the  Union;  because  they 
received  their  appointments  from  the  Pope,  through 
the  influence  or  dictation  of  the  Danish  crown.  The 
lower  clergy,  dependent  on  their  superiors,  assumed 
the  same  position.  They  had  always  been  obnoxious 
to  the  patriotic  party.     Englebert  was  violently  hostile 


54  The  Reformation  in  Sweden. 

to  the  Bishops;  and  the  three  Regents  Sture  were  con- 
stantly involved  in  contests  with  them.  The  execrated 
Archbishop  Trolle  opened  the  way  for  the  tyrant  Chris- 
tian to  the  throne.  In  the  war  which  ensued  the  ex- 
asperation against  the  bishops,  the  clergy  and  the 
monks  found  expression  in  many  acts  of  violence. 
Their  great  riches  furnished  a  tempting  resource  to 
Gustavus  to  supply  the  needs  of  his  army;  and  the  li- 
centiousness of  the  priests  and  monks  seemed  to  him 
to  condone  reprisals  for  the  outrages  which  the  nation 
had  for  centuries  endured  without  redress. 

But  the  most  immediately  pressing  of  all  the  diffi- 
culties of  the  king  were  financial.  He  had  been  com- 
pelled to  borrow  money  and  secure  ships  and  men  and 
materials  from  Lubeck  to  carry  on  the  war.  That  sharp 
commercial  town  pressed  him  hard  and  over-promptly 
for  payment.  On  the  very  day  of  his  election  as  king, 
a  deputation  from  Lubeck  demanded  an  immediate 
liquidation  of  his  debt  to  the  city.  He  requested  an 
extension  of  the  time.  This  was  granted  only  on  hard 
conditions,  for  he  had  distinctly  pledged  himself  for 
the  payment  so  soon  as  the  government  should  be  de- 
finitely settled.  He  was  compelled  to  agree  that  Sweden 
should  conclude  no  treaty  with  Christian  or  any  other 
power  without  the  consent  of  Lubeck;  that  on  the  sur- 
render of  Stockholm  and  Calmar,  all  goods  found  in 
them  which  the  Lubeck  and  Dantzic  merchants  should 
claim  upon  oath  as  theirs,  because  not  paid  for,  should 
be  restored  to  them;  and  that  the  wares  of  the  same 
cities  should  be  admitted  free  of  duty;  and  that  the 
whole  foreign  trade  of  Sweden  should  be  confined  to 
the  Hanse  towns.  It  was  a  most  ungenerous  advantage 
taken  of  the  embarrassing  circumstances  in  which  the 
king  was  placed;  and  the  demand  that  the  government 


The   Reformation  in  Sweden.  55 

should  be  made  responsible — for  that  in  effect  it  was 
— for  the  unfulfilled  obligations  of  private  merchants, 
was  unprecedented  and  grossly  unjust.  But  the  king 
was  not  in  a  position  openly  to  resist  these  demands. 
In  an  address  and  appeal  to  the  people,  Gustavus  stated 
the  urgent  necessities  of  his  position,  with  a  view  no 
doubt  to  prepare  them  for  and  to  vindicate  in  advance 
the  radical  measure  which  he  was  about  to  adopt.  It 
is  an  indication  of  his  personal  feeling  towards  the 
Church,  that  he  did  not  hesitate  to  lay  his  hands  upon 
that  portion  of  her  wealth  which  was  regarded  as  most 
sacred,  and  the  appropriation  of  which  to  secular  pur- 
poses would  be  considered  by  the  devout  children  of 
the  Church,  not  robbery  only,  but  the  grossest  sacrilege. 
The  Church  was  in  possession  of  two  thirds  of  the  landed 
property  of  the  kingdom;  but  as  that  could  not  be  made 
immediately  available  for  his  urgent  needs,  he  resolved 
to  appropriate  the  sacred  vessels  used  in  the  public 
services,  and  the  reliquaries,  and  the  gold  and  gems, 
the  gifts  of  kings  and  nobles,  in  the  treasuries  of  churches 
and  of  convents.  It  is  a  striking  proof  of  the  realized 
absolute  necessity  of  his  government  to  their  national 
existence,  that  such  a  measure  could  have  been  carried 
out  without  a  revolt  upon  the  part  of  the  people,  who 
had  thus  far  shown  no  desire  to  throw  off  the  Roman 
yoke.  It  seems  scarcely  credible  that  in  the  then  con- 
dition of  the  public  conscience,  the  following  demands 
could  have  been  obeyed:  "We  therefore  enjoin  you," 
says  this  document  in  the  address  to  the  clergy  and 
the  commissions  appointed  to  carry  out  the  royal  will, 
"without  delay  to  search  in  your  churches  and  monas- 
teries, both  in  towns  and  in  the  adjoining  country,  and 
observe  what  can  best  be  spared  and  select  from  the 
valuables — to  wit,  the  monstrances,  the  chalices  >  or  what- 


56  The  Reformation  in  Sweden. 

ever  else  of  the  kind  there  may  be,  and  also  any  coin 
which  may  come  to  hand,  and  send  them  here  by  a  sure 
messenger,  without  delay  or  negligence.  When  we  re- 
ceive the  same,  and  know  the  amount,  we  will  give  an 
acknowledgment,  so  that  the  debt  shall  be  duly  paid 
when  the  state  shall  be  in  better  circumstances."  But 
all  the  devices  of  the  king  to  raise  revenue  during  the 
early  part  of  his  reign  did  not  suffice  to  meet  the  wants 
of  the  Government.  He  was  thwarted  in  many  of  his 
plans  and  defeated  in  many  efforts  to  bring  his  king- 
dom into  peace  and  order,  for  the  want  of  money. 
None  but  a  man  of  commanding  ability  and  fertile  in 
resources,  and  with  a  strong  hold  upon  the  affection 
and  confidence  of  his  people,  could  have  worked  his 
way  through  and  over  the  enormous  difficulties  which 
beset  his  path. 

Last  and  not  least  of  the  difficulties  with  which 
Gustavus  was  called  to  struggle  was  the  distrust  ana 
opposition  of  the  priesthood.  We  have  seen  that  the 
priesthood,  high  and  low,  were  partisans  of  the  Danish 
rule.  This  alone  would  have  sufficed  to  have  made 
them  the  king's  secret  foes.  But  when  he  laid  his  hands 
upon  the  sacred  vessels  and  silver  shrines  and  lamps, 
the  golden  crucifixes  and  the  gem-encrusted  caskets  of 
holy  relics,  this  distrust  passed  into  thinly  veiled  and 
holy  horror.  While  it  could  have  been  scarcely  possi- 
ble that  the  growing  alienation  of  the  mind  of  the  king 
should  have  been  wholly  disguised,  he  yet  abstained, 
during  the  first  two  years  of  his  reign,  from  any  open 
opposition  to  the  doctrine  or  discipline  of  the  Church; 
although  he  did  not  altogether  escape  some  personal 
collisions  with  its  administrators.  It  was,  as  we  shall 
see,  one  of  the  main  problems  which  he  was  called  to 
solve,  to  prepare  the  way  gradually  for  the  abolition  of 


The  Reformation  in  Sweden.  57 

the  Papacy  and  yet  to  do  this  so  cautiously  as  not  to 
create  a  rebellion,  which  in  the  early  part  of  his  reign, 
before  his  power  was  consolidated,  he  might  have  been 
unable  to  overcome.  His  position  in  this  respect  was 
not  unlike  that  of  Queen  Elizabeth,  and  his  cautious 
policy  was  quite  the  counterpart  of  hers.  But  on  her. 
side  there  were  two  great  advantages  which  were  want- 
ing to  Gustavus.  She  was  the  recognized  lawful  heir  to 
the  throne,  in  a  country  where  the  principle  of  royal  he- 
reditary right  was  a  religious  dogma,  and  where  the 
Protestant  principles  which  she  aimed  to  introduce  and 
establish,  were  already  fervently  held  by  a  large  and 
intelligent  portion  of  the  people.  Gustavus  on  the 
contrary  was  an  elected  king,  and  the  principles  of  the 
Reformation  had  made  no  progress  and  were  scarcely 
known  to  exist  when  he  ascended  the  throne. 
The  Intro-  The  Lutheran  doctrines  had  been  introduced 
duction  of  secretly  into  Sweden  by  Olaus  and  Laurentius 
ism  into  Petri  a  few  years  before  Gustavus  was  pro- 
Sweden.  claimed  king.  They  were  native  Swedes, 
the  sons  of  a  smith  at  Orebo,  and  they  had  studied 
with  great  distinction  under  Luther  and  Melancthon, 
and  had  been  encouraged  by  them  to  return  and  labor 
to  evangelize  their  native  land.  They  were  learned 
and  intrepid  men,  who  were  animated  with  holy  zeal, 
tempered  by  discretion.  In  1520  Olaus  was  made  a 
Canon  of  Strengness  and  in  secret  preached  against  in- 
dulgences, vows  of  celibacy,  the  worship  of  saints  and 
images,  prayers  for  the  dead,  auricular  confession  and 
the  power  of  the  Pope.  The  shameless  traffic  in  indul- 
gences, which  prevailed  in  Germany  and  Switzerland, 
and  which  aroused  the  opposition  of  Luther  and  Zwingli, 
also  stimulated  the  zeal  of  the  brothers  Petri,  to  a  more 
open  denunciation  of  the  Papal  claims.     During  the  aw- 


58  The  Reformation  in  Sweden. 

ful  scenes  which  occurred  while  Christian  II.  had  pos- 
session of  the  kingdom,  and  the  war  which  followed, 
the  preaching  of  the  Petri  attracted  but  little  attention. 
But  while  these  events  prevented  a  wide  dissemination 
of  their  doctrines,  they  at  the  same  time  allowed  them 
to  labor  unmolested.  The  king,  who  had  corresponded 
with  Luther  in  1524,  advanced  Olaus  to  the  Rectorship 
of  the  Church  in  Stockholm,  and  appointed  his  brother 
Laurentius  a  professor  in  the  University  of  Upsala.  At 
this  time  the  king  had  become  a  firm  but  unavowed 
believer  in  the  doctrines  of  Luther.  After  the  close  of 
the  war  the  preaching  of  the  two  brothers,  from  the 
vantage-ground  of  their  high  position,  began  to  attract 
much  attention.  As  it  now  met  with  violent  opposition 
Gustavus  appointed  a  discussion  of  the  points  in  dispute 
to  be  held  in  his  presence.  The  result  was,  as  the  king 
had  foreseen,  favorable  to  the  Reformers.  In  conse- 
quence of  this  discussion  twelve  questions  were  prepared 
for  examination  in  an  assembly  of  divines  to  be  ap- 
pointed by  the  king. 

These  questions  were  examined  in  a  con- 
of°Lutheran  ference  held  at  Upsala  at  Christmas,  1524. 
and  Roman    Olaus    Petri,   in   the   presence   of  the  king, 

challenged  the  Canons  of  Upsala  to  defend 
the  doctrines  of  the  Roman  Church.  At  first  the 
Chapter  declined  to  engage  in  the  controversy,  but 
finally  appointed  Peter  Galle  as  their  champion.  The 
questions  submitted  involved  the  chief  topics  in  con- 
troversy between  the  Lutheran  and  the  Roman  Church. 
They  were  as  follows:  "Whether  God's  Word  is  the 
sole  rule  of  faith;  what  are  the  limits  of  Church  author- 
ity; whether  the  supremacy  of  the  Pope  and  his  agents 
be  for  Christ  or  against  Him;  whether  man  can  be 
saved  by  his  own  works  and  deservings  or  otherwise 


The  Reformation  in  Sweden.  59 

than  by  God's  grace  and  mercy;  whether  men  have  a 
right  to  order  the  administration  of  the  Lord's  Supper 
in  a  way  different  from  Christ's  institution;  whether 
there  is  any  scriptural  warrant  for  the  doctrine  of 
purgatory;  and  lastly,  whether  the  Saints  are  to  be 
worshiped  and  prayed  to,  and  are  our  protectors,  pa- 
trons, mediators  and  intercessors  before  God." 

A  sharp  discussion  followed,  in  which  Peter  Galle 
relied  upon  the  Fathers,  and  Olaus  on  the  Script- 
ures alone.  After  it  had  continued  some  time,  it  was 
stopped  by  the  king  at  a  point  where  it  was  becoming 
violent,  and  would  have  been  likely  to  have  ended  in 
commotion  and  confusion.  He  requested  the  dispu- 
tants to  reduce  their  arguments  to  writing,  that  they 
might  be  considered  more  fully  in  a  larger  conference  or 
synod  of  the  clergy.  These  productions  were  printed 
and  circulated  through  the  kingdom,  and  prepared  the 
way  in  the  more  remote  portions  of  the  country  for 
the  reception  of  the  Reformed  faith.  But  the  most 
effective  publication  on  the  Protestant  side  was  that 
of  the  Bible  translated  into  Swedish  by  Chancellor 
Lars  Anderson  at  the  king's  command.  This  was 
issued  in  the  following  year. 

The  manifold  complications  of  the  king  made  it 
impossible  that  he  should  yet  appear  as  the  apologist 
or  champion  of  the  Reformation.  It  was  evidence  of 
great  moral  force  on  his  part,  that  he  resolutely  pro- 
tected the  Reformers,  and  refused  to  allow  them  to 
be  persecuted  or  silenced.  The  Bishop  of  Linkoping 
urged  the  king  not  to  shield  those  who  promulgated 
the  new  heresy,  and  to  prohibit  the  sale  of  Luther's 
writings.  The  king  replied  that  he  was  bound  to  pro- 
tect every  one  of  his  subjects  until  they  should  be 
convicted  of  some  crime  or  civil  offense.     Thus  early 


6o  The  Reformation  in  Sweden. 

did  he  announce  the  noble  principle,  unfortunately  not 
adopted  by  all  the  Reformers,  from  which  he  never  sub- 
sequently swerved,  that  religious  opinions  when  they 
did  not  pass  into,  or  were  not  made  the  plea  for  crimes 
against  the  State  or  against  the  laws,  should  not  be 
punished  by  the  government.  To  the  demand  which 
was  made  that  he  should  prohibit  the  sale  of  Luther's 
books  he  gave  the  following  firm  and  calm  reply:  "  As 
to  the  request  that  we  should  forbid  the  purchase  of 
Luther's  books,  we  do  not  see  how  we  can  grant  it 
until  we  hear  them  condemned  by  impartial  judges, 
especially  since  books  against  Luther  are  brought 
into  the  country.  It  seems,  therefore,  according  to 
our  poor  understanding  that  there  should  be  an  oppor- 
tunity of  reading  the  one  as  well  as  the  other."  Under 
the  circumstances  in  which  he  was  placed  it  was 
a  brave  and  direct  reply,  when  mere  policy,  uninflu- 
enced by  conscience,  would  have  led  to  evasion  or 
equivocation. 

For  in  addition  to  those  general  and  perma- 
Gustavus  nent  difficulties  of  which  we  have  spoken, 
against  Sev-    Gustavus   was   at   that    time    encrao-ed   in   a 

enn  Norby.  .  AT      . 

struggle  against  beverm  JNorby,  a  partisan 
of  Christian,  who  had  taken  possession  of  the  island  of 
Gothland  in  the  name  of  the  dethroned  king,  and  ex- 
ercised there  a  very  independent  sway.  Norby  was  a 
brilliant  sailor  and  soldier  of  fortune,  who  combined 
the  characteristics  of  the  old  Vikings,  of  the  Italian 
condottieri  of  the  middle  ages,  and  of  those  contempo- 
rary knights  in  Germany,  who,  like  Ulrich  Von  Hutten 
and  Sickengen,  were  accomplished  scholars.  The  pow- 
erful little  capital  of  Gothland — Wisby — was  one  of  the 
rich  Hanse  towns  of  the  middle  ages,  the  rival  and  the 
peer   of  prosperous   Lubeck.      It   was    surrounded    by 


The  Reformation  in  Sweden.  6i 

powerful  walls,  which  were  fortified  by  massive  and 
lofty  towers,  and  within  it  was  an  abode  of  wealth  and 
a  hive  of  industry.  Its  present  dilapidated  condition 
still  attests  its  former  greatness;  for  its  walls  and  towers 
remain,  and  within  the  circuit  of  a  mile  are  the  ruins 
of  a  dozen  churches,  some  of  them  having  almost  the 
solidity  and  size,  and  elaborate  architecture  of  cathe- 
drals, in  which  the  merchants  and  citizens  of  various 
nationalities  and  tongues  were  accustomed  to  worship. 
But  as  its  commercial  prosperity  declined  and  its  pop- 
ulation diminished,  its  large  shipping  and  its  impover- 
ished citizens  were  often  employed  in  piratical  adven- 
tures. This  island  with  its  fortified  position  and  its 
piratical  reputation  furnished  an  asylum  and  a  base  of 
operations,  precisely  suited  to  the  character  and  purposes 
of  Norby.  At  an  early  period  it  had  been  colonized  by 
Sweden,  was  converted  to  Christianity  by  S.  Olaf,  in 
his  own  peculiar  militant  style  of  missionary  zeal,  and 
had  acknowledged  allegiance  and  paid  tribute  to  the 
parent  state.  The  Swedish  historian  Geijer  traces  the 
rise  of  the  Hanseatic  League  to  this  prosperous  com- 
mercial community;  and  it  was  not  until  after  the  middle 
of  the  fourteenth  century,  1361,  that,  in  conflict  with 
the  greatly  superior  power  of  Denmark,  it  received  the 
fatal  blow  from  which  it  never  rallied. 

When  therefore  Norby  took  possession  of  the  island 
he  was  at  once  welcomed  by  its  inhabitants  as  its  lord. 
He  proceeded  to  enlarge  those  piratical  enterprises  to 
which  they  looked  for  their  prosperity;  and  he  enriched 
the  impoverished  city  by  unlading  all  the  booty  from 
the  ships  which  he  captured;  and  then,  sending  them 
away  empty,  he  wished  them  a  good  voyage  and  a 
happy  return,  with  fresh  and  fuller  cargoes.  He  even 
issued  coins,  as  an  independent  prince,  with  his  own 


62  The  Reformation  in  Sweden. 

name  on  the  one  side,  and  the  arms  of  Gothland — 
most  inappropriate  to  its  then  position — a  lamb  with  a 
standard  on  the  other!  The  life  of  a  sea  rover  at  this 
time  in  the  Baltic,  notwithstanding  laws  against  it, 
instead  of  covering  those  who  practiced  it  with  infamy, 
seems  to  have  invested  them  with  a  glamor  of  romantic 
adventure,  something  like  that  which  invested  the 
Vikings  of  old,  especially  when,  as  in  the  case  of 
Norby,  it  was  professedly  adopted  from  loyalty  to  a 
deposed  and  lawful  sovereign. 

Gustavus  was  made  to  feel  that  he  could  not  have 
secure  possession  of  his  throne  so  long  as  Norby  and 
his  little  kingdom  furnished  a  rallying  point  and  a 
nucleus  for  all  the  remaining  opposition  to  his  reign. 
Moreover  there  was  good  reason  to  believe  that  the 
aspiring  adventurer  aimed  at  dispossessing  Gustavus 
and  obtaining  the  regency  of  the  kingdom  by  a  mar- 
riage with  the  widow  of  the  late  administrator,  Christina 
Gyllenstierna.  Her  own  conduct  and  language  gave 
countenance  to  this  belief.  When  a  rumor  to  that  effect 
was  spread  among  the  Dalesmen  to  excite  them  to 
revolt,  and  when  Gustavus,  in  order  to  defeat  such  a 
scheme,  proposed — what  was  equivalent  to  a  command 
— that  she  should  be  united  to  Jno.  Tureson,  the  son 
of  the  high  steward,  she  gave  an  explanation  of  her 
relation  to  Norby,  which  the  king  affected  to  accept. 
"  She  was  afraid,"  she  said,  "  that  Norby  had  given  out 
the  year  before  that  she  was  betrothed  to  him,  and  that 
he  held  her  written  engagement.  But  he  could  not 
prove  that  she  had  plighted  her  faith  either  to  himself 
or  to  any  other  man  since  the  death  of  her  husband. 
She  had  written  to  him  but  once,  and  then  told  him 
that  she  was  not  disposed  again  to  marry;  but  if  she 
were  inclined  he  would  be  the  man  of  her  choice.     Now 


The  Reformation  in  Sweden.  63 

she  did  not  know  whether  he  had  so  understood  these 
words,  as  though  she  had  meant  to  take  him  for  her 
wedded  lord;  if  he  had,  he  was  mistaken.  True,  she 
had  sent  him  a  gold  ring  and  tablet;  but  this  was  only 
to  testify  the  sense  she  entertained  of  the  courteous 
attention  he  had  paid  her  when  she  was  captive  in 
Denmark."  Skillful  words  certainly,  but  not  such  as 
could  exonerate  her  from  disloyalty  to  her  own  king, 
in  maintaining  such  close  and  friendly  relations  with 
his  avowed  and  open  enemy! 

It  was  with  no  little  reluctance  that  Gustavus  en- 
tered upon  the  task  of  capturing  Wisby  and  destroy- 
ing the  power  of  Norby.  He  no  doubt  felt  that,  even 
if  his  throne  was  not  endangered,  his  prestige  would 
be  undermined,  and  his  influence  lessened,  so  long  as 
a  powerful  enemy  could  keep  the  field  against  him. 
An  expensive  expedition  which  strained  the  resources 
of  the  king,  was  sent  to  Gothland  and  took  possession 
of  all  the  island  except  Wisby;  and  after  his  unsuccess- 
ful siege,  the  capital  was  finally  surrendered  to  the 
Danish  king.  Gustavus  was  chagrined  and  dissatis- 
fied with  this  result,  and  resolved  never  again  to  en- 
gage in  any  enterprise  outside  of  his  own  dominions; 
but  his  last  formidable  and  active  enemy  was  now  out 
of  his  way,  and  he  hoped  to  be  able  to  give  his  undi- 
vided attention  to  the  welfare  of  Sweden,  and  to  the 
promotion  of  the  Reformation.* 

*  The  remainder  of  Norby's  adventurous  and  tumultuous  life  was  in  keep- 
ing with  that  which  we  have  described  above.  He  escaped  with  a  remnant 
of  his  fleet  from  Gothland,  endeavored  in  vain  to  enlist  Frederic  of  Denmark 
in  a  war  with  Gustavus,  proceeded  to  Russia  to  exasperate  the  Czar  against 
both  Sweden  and  Denmark,  and,  failing  in  that  effort,  was  imprisoned  in 
Moscow  for  three  years.  Liberated  at  the  intercession  of  the  Emperor,  he 
entered  into  his  service,  and  was  killed  at  the  siege  of  Florence,  in  1530. 
That  his  piratical  career  enhanced  rather  than  diminished  his  fame  appears 


64  The  Reformation  in  Sweden. 

Everywhere  we  see  the  Reformation  at  its 

Commotions  J  .  , 

Caused  by  rise  discredited  and  hindered  by  the  ex- 
Anabaptists.  travagances  0f  the  Anabaptists.  It  was  so 
in  Germany  and  Bohemia.  The  same  little  group  of 
Anabaptist  leaders  appear  in  succession  in  Wittemberg 
and  in  Stockholm.  It  was  in  the  same  year,  1524,  in 
which  the  discussion  took  place  before  Gustavus  that 
Melchior  Rink,  a  furrier,  and  Knipperdoling,  both  from 
Munster,  arrived  in  Stockholm.  They  soon  met  with 
supporters,  and  obtained  possession  of  the  principal 
churches,  where  they  preached  from  the  Book  of  Rev- 
elation on  the  reign  of  the  Saints  in  the  Millennium, 
which  was  soon  to  come.  Their  converts  and  parti- 
sans, excited  to  a  high  pitch  of  enthusiasm,  broke  into 
churches  and  convents,  destroyed  the  images,  organs 
and  ornaments,  which  they  found  there,  and  threw  the 
fragments  into  the  streets  and  market-places.  Olaus 
Petri's  ineffectual  efforts  to  quell  the  disturbances  did 
not  save  him  from  the  sharp  rebukes  of  Gustavus. 
Some  of  the  authors  of  these  disturbances  were  impris- 
oned, and  some  banished  from  the  kingdom,  and  for- 
bidden to  return.  But  the  affair  gave  great  scandal, 
and  created  fresh  prejudices  against  the  Lutheran  doc- 
trines. This  was  increased  in  some  of  the  provinces  by 
the  Antinomian  doctrines  and  the  loose  lives  of  preachers 
who  had  been  infected  with  Anabaptist  opinions.  Gus- 
tavus met  this  difficulty  with  his  usual  skill  and  firm- 

from  an  eulogistic  Latin  poem  to  his  memory  by  the  former  Vice-Chancellor 
to  Christian  II.,  which  ends  thus: 

"That  life  which  Moscow's  dungeons  could  not  quell, 
Nor  Neptune  quench  amid  his  boundless  swell, 
In  Latium  sunk,  the  citadel  of  fame, 
That  through  the  world  might  spread  so  great  a  name  !  " 

(History  of  Gustavus  Vasa.    Jxo.  Murray,  1852.) 


The  Reformation  in  Sweden.  65 

ness.  While  making  his  Ericksgeit  through  the  king- 
dom, he  often  called  the  Evangelical  clergy  around 
him  and  addressed  them.  He  exhorted  them  to  pro- 
ceed cautiously  in  dealing  with  error  and  errorists,  not 
to  dwell  harshly  on  topics  which  might  give  offense, 
not  to  carp  at  popes  and  bishops,  for  the  ignorant  peo- 
ple were  immediately  offended  and  said  that  they 
preached  a  new  faith.  The  pure  doctrine  of  the  Gos- 
pel he  would  certainly  uphold  and  spread  over  the  king- 
dom; but  he  complained  that  they  did  not  instruct  the 
people  properly ;  that  some  spoke  scoffingly  of  the  saints ; 
that  some  condemned  good  works,  not  distinguishing 
those  of  man's  device  from  those  which  God  Himself 
had  ordained;  that  some  had  put  aside  holy  days  to- 
gether with  the  comfortable  Gospels  and  Epistles  ap- 
pointed for  them;  and  finally  that  many  led  lazy  and 
scandalous  lives.  In  these  informal  condones  ad  clerum 
the  king  had  reference  to  the  errors  and  misdoings  of 
both  Papists  and  extreme  and  fanatical  Protestants, 
and  showed  himself  a  sound  theologian  as  well  as  a 
skillful  administrator.  But  it  cannot  be  denied  that, 
pressed  on  many  sides  with  the  conflicting  demands 
of  his  position,  the  necessity  imposed  upon  him  to  be 
at  the  same  time  a  conservative  and  a  reformer,  led 
him  sometimes  into  dissimulations  difficult  to  be  re- 
conciled with  godly  simplicity  and  sincerity. 

The  king's  strong  conviction  that  the  moral 
Treatment  and  material  welfare  of  the  kingdom  de- 
of  the  Priests    pended  upon  taking  from   the   clergy  their 

and  Monks.      V  •    -i  j  j    A       r-         Jf  ■     u     u 

enormous  privileges,  and  detaching  their  hold 
upon  the  superstitious  devotion  of  the  people,  through 
a  reformation  of  doctrine,  led  him  to  adopt  a  definite 
and  determined  policy.  In  this  determination  he  was 
greatly  encouraged  and  confirmed  by  his  able  Chan- 


66  The  Reformation  in  Sweden. 

cellor,  Lars  Anderson.  Anderson  had  been  an  ec- 
clesiastic; but  from  a  secret  rejection  of  the  Romish 
system  rather  than  from  a  cordial  adoption  of  Luther- 
anism,  he  abandoned  the  clerical  for  the  secular  life; 
and  by  his  great  knowledge  and  administrative  ability 
soon  rose  to  the  highest  civil  office  in  the  kingdom, 
and  became  the  confidential  counselor  of  the  king.  It 
was  from  the  standpoint  of  a  statesman  that  he  urged 
the,  king  to  prepare  the  way  for  the  establishment  of 
Lutheranism  by  depriving  the  clergy,  first  of  many  of 
their  prerogatives  and  immunities,  and  then  of  the 
great  possessions  which  these  unjust  advantages  had 
enabled  them  to  accumulate.  Very  skillfully  did  he 
begin  to  deprive  them  of  those  traditional  or  recog- 
nized rights  which  weighed  most  heavily  upon  the 
people,  in  order  that  they  might  be  won  to  approve 
and  sanction  his  proceedings.  His  measures  in  this 
direction  and  to  this  end  are  thus  described  by  Vertot 
(p.  21 1):  "The  Swedish  curates  had  assumed  a  right 
to  impose  a  kind  of  tax  upon  certain  public  sins,  and 
with  a  great  deal  of  vigor  exacted  considerable  fines 
from  those  who  took  the  diversion  of  hunting  or  fishing 
in  time  of  divine  service,  and  those  who  abused  women 
to  whom  they  were  contracted  before  the  solemn  cele- 
bration of  the  sacrament  of  Marriage.  This  privilege 
was  abrogated  by  one  of  the  king's  proclamations,  and 
the  priests  were  prohibited  to  exact  such  impositions 
for  the  future.  By  another  declaration  they  were  for- 
bidden to  use  ecclesiastical  censures  against  their 
private  enemies  or  creditors.  The  bishops  and  their 
officials  had  extended  the  jurisdiction  of  the  Church 
so  far  beyond  its  ordinary  limits  that  they  claimed  a 
divine  right  to  take  cognizance  of  all  sorts  of  affairs 
that  had  the  least  relation  to  religion.     An  oath  made 


The  Reformation  in  Sweden.  67 

in  a  bargain,  the  interposition  of  a  clergyman  which 
was  frequently  begged  for  that  purpose,  or  the  least 
dispute  which  arose  about  a  contract  of  marriage  were 
reckoned  sufficient  grounds  to  remove  a  cause  from 
the  ordinary  courts  of  justice.  But  Gustavus  abro- 
gated their  jurisdiction  entirely,  insinuating  at  the 
same  time  that  the  hearing  and  determination  of  suits 
were  inconsistent  with  the  function  and  duty  of  clergy- 
men. And  by  the  same  declaration  it  was  ordained 
that  the  clergy  should  be  obliged  to  refer  their  differ- 
ences to  secular  judges,  who  were  authorized  to  take 
cognizance  of  all  the  affairs  in  the  kingdom." 

These  were  sweeping  innovations.  But  Gus- 
itation  of  the  tavus  proceeded  farther.  He  forbade  bish- 
PHvilegesof   0pS>  on  any  pretense  of  right  or  of  specific 

bequest,  to  take  the  property  of  deceased 
clergymen  to  the  prejudice  of  their  lawful  heirs.  As 
he  saw  that  the  Lutheranism  which  he  secretly  fos- 
tered progressed  in  the  kingdom,  he  continued  to 
issue  injunctions  which  limited  more  and  more  the 
privileges  of  the  bishops  and  the  clergy. 

Having  thus  prepared  the  way,  the  king  was  reso- 
lute in  carrying  out  the  policy  which  he  had  determined 
to  adopt  in  reference  to  the  ecclesiastical  estates.  It 
was  estimated  by  him  that  the  clergy  were  in  posses- 
sion of  two  thirds  of  the  entire  wealth  of  the  kingdom; 
and  he  insisted  that  it  was  but  just  that  they  should 
bear  a  proportionate  part  of  the  burdens  of  the  State, 
and  not  allow  them  to  be  borne  only  by  the  poorer 
classes,  upon  whom  they  had  always  pressed  heavily, 
and  in  the  present  exigency  would  fall  with  crushing 
weight.  As  early  as  1522  he  had  demanded  aid  from 
the  clergy;  and  again  in  1523  another  requisition  in  the 
form  of  a  loan  was  made;  and  in  the  three  years  sue- 


68  The  Reformation  in  Sweden. 

ceedine  the  same  demands  continued  to  be  enforced. 
When  these  continued  exactions  were  followed  by  a 
dearth  of  food  so  severe  as  almost  to  amount  to  a 
famine  in  1527  and  1528,  the  clergy  did  not  fail  to  rep- 
resent it  as  a  visitation  of  God  upon  the  kingdom  for 
the  oppression  of  the  Church  and  the  favor  shown  to 
the  new  heresy  of  Luther.  These  charges  Gustavus 
met  by  the  statement  that  it  was  but  just  that  the 
clergy  should  contribute  to  the  expenses  of  the  State; 
that  they  were  not  taxed  in  larger  proportion  to  their 
wealth  than  other  classes;  and  that  much  of  the  prop- 
erty which  he  demanded  of  them  was  lying  idle,  and 
should  be  rendered  available  for  the  uses  of  the  State. 
He  declared  that  when  he  compelled  them  to  bear 
their  portion  of  the  public  burdens,  and  endeavored  to 
protect  the  people  from  their  exactions,  they  at  once 
raised  the  clamor  that  all  these  measures  were  adopted 
with  a  view  to  introduce  the  Lutheran  heresy  and 
overthrow  the  Church.  In  replying  to  this  charge, 
Gustavus  insisted  that  in  this  proceeding  he  acted 
wholly  in  the  character  of  a  just  ruler,  and  not  as  a 
Reformer.  Without  denying  that  he  had  protected 
Reformers,  he  declared  that  his  protection  of  his  sub- 
jects from  unjust  exactions  and  the  arbitrary  will  of 
the  priesthood  should  not  be  laid  to  the  charge  of  in- 
novating and  reforming  religious  zeal. 

His  language  upon  the  subject  is  very  emphatic.  He 
does  not  allow  the  bishops  and  priests  to  escape  his  spe- 
cific charges  by  hiding  them  under  the  counter  charge 
of  Lutheran  heresy  and  schism.  "  Certain  monks  and 
priests,"  he  writes  in  1526  to  the  people  of  Helsingfors, 
"  have  brought  us  into  scandal,  chiefly  for  that  we.  blame 
their  irregularities."  Among  these  the  king  reckons 
that  if  a  man  owe  anything,  they  refuse  him  the  Sac- 


The  Reformation  in  Sweden.  6g 

rament,  instead  of  pursuing  their  demand  by  law;  if  a 
poor  man  on  a  holy  day  kills  a  bird,  or  draws  a  fish 
from  a  stream,  he  is  forthwith  obliged  to  pay  a  fine  to 
the  bishop  and  the  provost  for  Sabbath-breaking;  that 
the  laymen  have  not  the  same  rights  against  the  priests 
as  the  priests  have  against  them;  that  the  priests  took 
the  inheritance  of  priests  dying  intestate,  passing  over 
their  heirs;  that  the  clergy  fraudulently  possess  them- 
selves of  much  of  crown  property,  and  embezzle  the 
king's  proportion  of  judicial  fines;  when  they  perceive 
that  we  look  to  the  interest  of  the  crown,  which  is  in- 
cumbent on  us  by  reason  of  our  kingly  dignity,  they 
straightway  declare  that  we  wish  to  bring  in  a  new  faith 
and  Luther's  doctrine;  whereas  the  matter  is  not  other- 
wise than  ye  have  now  heard,  that  we  will  not  permit 
them  to  give  loose  to  their  avarice,  contrary  to  law." 
While  it  is  evident  that  no  devout  Romanist  could 
have  used  this  language,  and  adopted  these  energetic 
measures,  it  is  equally  clear  that  they  might  have  been 
employed  by  a  just  and  decided  king,  who  had  no  ten- 
dency to  Lutheranism,  nor  even  any  religious  convic- 
tions. They  betray  a  rejection  of  Romanism,  but  not 
an  adoption  of  Lutheranism. 

Intrigues  ^  was  ^ut  a  *"ew  months  after  his  election 
against  the  that  there  were  plots  on  foot  to  dethrone 
him,  and  to  restore  the  house  of  Sture  to 
the  head  of  the  government.  It  seemed  to  be  a  cir- 
cumstance favorable  to  the  stability  of  his  throne,  that 
on  his  accession  all  the  bishoprics,  with  the  exception 
of  two,  were  vacant.  It  might  have  fairly  been  ex- 
pected that  those  whom  he  appointed  would  be  loyal 
to  him.  But  they  all,  sooner  or  later,  became  his 
enemies.  Peter  Jacobson,  called  Sunanvader,  who 
had  been  chancellor  of  Steno  Sture  the  Younger,  was 


70  The  Reformation  in  Sweden. 

choson  Bishop  of  Westeras  by  the  Dalesmen,  and 
confirmed  by  the  king.  But  in  less  than  a  year  he  was 
detected  in  a  conspiracy  to  overthrow  Gustavus,  and 
reinstate  the  house  of  Sture.  He  was  deprived  of  his 
office,  as  was  also  the  newly  elected  Bishop  Canute,  who 
appeared  in  his  defense.  The  deposed  bishops  pro- 
ceeded to  the  Dales,  and  there  fanned  the  conspiracy 
which  they  had  before  kindled.  Their  intrigues  with 
the  Dalesmen  led  the  latter  to  adopt  a  high  tone 
towards  Gustavus,  as  if,  being  a  king  of  their  making, 
they  could  direct  him  or  depose  him.  But  it  was  not 
long  before  they  found  that  they  had  in  him  a  master 
who  was  just  and  generous  to  the  loyal,  but  who  could 
be  stern  and  terrible  to  the  rebellious.  This  they  had 
not  learned  as  yet,  and  hence  they  assumed  to  address 
him  in  the  tone  of  those  who  felt  that  he  would  be 
compelled  to  yield.  Under  the  dictation  of  the  two 
bishops  they  wrote  to  him  that  they  would  not  permit 
him  to  impose  one  tax  after  another  upon  the  churches, 
and  convents,  and  priests,  and  monks,  and  people. 
They  renounced  their  allegiance  to  him  unless  he 
procured  for  them  cheaper  markets,  and  drove  for- 
eigners from  his  service,  and  cleared  himself  from  the 
charge  of  having  imprisoned  Christina  Gillenstierna, 
and  poisoned  or  banished  her  son.  They  reminded 
the  king  of  his  obligation  to  them  "  when  he  was  a 
ftiendless  wanderer  in  the  woods,"  and  how  ill  he  had 
performed  the  promises  which  he  made  to  them. 

These  intrigues  were  implicated  with  others  which 
rendered  the  position  of  the  king  for  a  time  perilous 
and  doubtful.  So  far  from  having  imprisoned  Christina, 
Gustavus  had  just  secured  her  release  from  a  Danish 
prison,  when  this  charge  was  made.  She  proceeded  to 
Calmar  and  there  met  her  eldest  son,  Nicholas,  who 


The  Reformation  in  Sweden.  71 

was  then  twelve  years  of  age,  and  whom  the  bishops 
wished  to  elevate  to  the  throne.  It  was  at  this  time 
that  Norby,  at  the  instigation  of  the  bishops,  attempted 
to  secure  the  hand  of  Christina,  with  a  view  to  elevate 
her  son  to  the  throne,  of  which  they  might  be  the  joint 
guardians.  While  Gustavus  suspected  Christina  as  se- 
cretly favoring  this  arrangement,  he  professed  to  regard 
it  as  the  mere  gossip  of  the  disaffected,  and  took  the 
young  Sture  to  his  court  for  a  time,  and  then  sent  him 
to  his  mother,  who  had  repaired  to  Upsala.  His  death 
soon  after  removed  the  nucleus  around  which  these  in- 
trigues and  treasons  gathered.  For  it  was  the  double 
object  of  many  of  these  conspirators  to  elevate  the  house 
of  Sture  and  restore  King  Christian.  We  learn  that 
this  was  the  design  of  one  party  from  a  written  promise 
of  the  fugitive  king,  that  if  Lord  Severin  should  marry 
the  Lady  Christina,  and  thereby  come  into  the  govern- 
ment of  Sweden,  he  might  hold  the  kingdom  absolutely 
as  the  king's  Lieutenant,  for  a  yearly  tribute.  He  even 
issued  a  public  letter  to  the  effect  that  he  had  trans- 
ferred his  power  to  Norby  until  he  should  himself  return 
to  his  dominions.  Norby  in  the  spring  of  1525  made  a 
descent  upon  Scania,  and  all  the  province  except  Malmo 
again  did  homage  to  Christian.  And  at  the  same  time 
that  this  treason  was  working  in  the  south  of  the  king- 
dom, the  rebel  bishops  were  endeavoring  to  stir  up  the 
dissatisfied  Dalesmen  to  open  opposition.  But  in  this 
they  met  with  so  little  success, — the  Dalesmen  much 
preferring  to  reprove  Gustavus  than  to  fight  with  him, 
— that  ultimately  they  were  compelled  to  flee  to  Norby. 
The  Atti-  ^  was  under  these  complicated  and  harass- 
tude  of  the  ing  difficulties  that  Gustavus  exhibited  at 
once  the  enormous  energy  and  resources  of 
his  genius,  and  that  stern  side  of  his  character  which 


72  The  Reformation  in  Sweden. 

sometimes  passed  into  cruelty,  which  overawed  at 
length  all  but  the  boldest  and  most  desperate  of  his 
enemies.  His  firm  attitude  at  the  period,  and  his  de- 
termination to  put  down  the  priesthood  which  so  con- 
stantly employed  its  spiritual  power  to  further  temporal 
interests,  appears  in  his  spirited  reply  to  the  Dean  of 
Upsala,  who  had  pointed  out  to  him  what  he  regarded 
as  the  chief  cause  of  popular  discontent.  "  You  write," 
replies  the  king,  "  that  the  people  were  angry  that  the 
Bishop  of  Westeras  has  not  a  sufficient  number  of  re- 
tainers. We  should  rather  expect  them  to  be  angry  if 
they  came  with  a  multitude,  burdening  first  one  and 
then  another;  but yotc  and  many  others,  perhaps,  may 
take  offense  thereat;  you  who  cannot,  or  will  not,  think 
otherwise  that  that  to  the  office  of  a  bishop  is  attached 
some  great  worldly  dignity,  notwithstanding  that  the 
Scriptures  hold  them  to  be  servants  of  all,  and  that 
they  can  fulfill  this  duty  far  better  with  few  retainers 
than  with  many. 

"You  write  further  that  it  is  highly  desirable  that 
nothing  be  violently  or  unjustly  taken  from  the  churches 
and  monasteries.  Would  to  God  that  our  forefathers 
had  been  as  careful  that  nothing  had  been  filched  from 
the  crown  and  nobles  by  fraud  and  imposture,  as  folks 
nowadays  take  care  to  keep  what  they  have  obtained, 
whether  by  right  or  by  wrong.  We  do  not  know  whether 
we  have  taken  anything  violently  from  churches  and 
monasteries  as  you  write;  but  we  know  that  we  have 
restored  them  what  their  enemies  had  sliced  away,  and 
preserved  what  was  threatened  to  be  sliced  away  in 
like  manner. 

"  Another  person  is  now  bestirring  himself— I  mean 
King  Christian — making  much  ado  to  regain  the  King- 
dom of  Sweden — which   God   forbid  !     You  will   find, 


The  Reformation  in  Sweden.  73 

should  he  succeed,  that  he  will  filch  more  from  you 
and  from  others  than  what  we  have  either  done  or  wish 
to  do;  and  if  you  and  the  Chapter  had  well  considered, 
you  would  have  been  quite  as  well  advised  had  you  de- 
fended our  proceedings,  instead  of  aggravating  the  case, 
whenever  the  priests  who  were  under  you  had  taken 
them  ill  or  misunderstood  them.  If  you  yourself  had 
given  the  matter  due  consideration,  you,  Master  John, 
had  no  good  grounds  to  fall  in  so  readily  with  those 
who  batter  at  our  shield;  and  though  you  write  that 
you  do  so  with  the  best  intentions,  we  can  well  per- 
ceive from  your  style  to  which  side  you  incline.  Now 
you  are  the  man  in  whom  of  all  in  Upsala  we  have 
placed  the  most  confidence — you  are  he  whom  we  have 
highly  exalted — you  are  he  whom  we  have  most  de- 
lighted to  know.  See  that  you  prove  yourself  sensi- 
ble of  this." 

We  cannot  wonder  that  the  treason  of  bishops  of 
his  own  appointment,  and  the  selfish  greed  and  the 
thinly  veiled  disloyalty  of  friends  in  whom  he  trusted, 
should  have  awakened  this  feeling  of  scorn  and  indig- 
nation in  the  heart  of  the  king;  but  it  is  only  a  brave 
man  that,  in  the  critical  circumstances  in  which  he 
was  placed,  would  have  ventured  to  give  them  such 
free  expression.  It  is  evident  that  he  felt  that  the  time 
had  come  for  the  inevitable  conflict  with  the  Papal 
and  priestly  power.  He  no  longer  disguised  his  con- 
viction that  the  Church  was  not  only  an  oppressive 
domination,  fatal  to  the  advancement  and  prosperity 
of  the  kingdom,  the  robber  of  the  rights  and  posses- 
sions of  citizens  and  of  the  State,  in  the  name  of  reli- 
gion, but  that  it  was  essentially  anti-Christian  in  its 
dogmas  and  its  spirit.  He  saw  that  the  time  for  peace- 
ful preparation  for   the  Reformation   had  passed,  and 


74  The  Reformation  in  Sweden. 

that  it  must  either  be  established  or  destroyed  by 
open  conflict,  by  a  decided  victory  or  defeat.  He  did 
not  hesitate  to  meet  the  crisis,  not  only  with  his  us- 
ual magnificent  intrepidity,  but  also  with  no  little  of 
passion  and  of  polemic  zeal.  He  put  off  his  civic  robes 
and  threw  down  his  diplomatic  pen,  and  donned  his 
armor  and  took  in  his  mailed  hand  the  sword  that  had 
won  so  many  and  such  wondrous  triumphs.  The  time 
was  propitious.  Christian  was  a  fugitive.  Frederic 
of  Denmark  was  from  policy  friendly.  Norby  was  out 
of  the  way.  The  Pope  was  in  conflict  with  Charles  V., 
and  the  Emperor's  resources  were  too  absorbed  in  that 
struggle,  and  in  his  large  imperial  schemes  in  Italy,  the 
Netherlands  and  France,  to  allow  him  to  intervene  in 
the  affairs  of  Sweden.  His  proceedings  from  this  pe- 
riod plainly  showed  his  purpose  to  grapple  with  and 
overthrow  the  Papal  domination  or  to  perish  in  the 
attempt. 


CHAPTER   IV. 

THE   SUCCESSFUL  STRUGGLE   OF  GUSTAVUS  WITH   THE 
SPIRITUAL   POWER,    1 526-27. 

THE  resolution  of  the  king  to  destroy  the  Papal 
power  in  Sweden  soon  found  expression  in  meas- 
ures which  brought  on  an  open  conflict. 
The  Arrest  Prompt  steps  were  taken  by  the  king  to 
and  Exeat-  insure  his  authority  over  the  people  before 
Utwo  Bisk-  he  entered  upon  the  decisive  measure  of 
°PS-  securing  the  arrest  and  trial  and  punishment 

of  the  two  rebel  bishops.  The  States  were  assembled 
early  in  May,  1526,  at  Westeras.  The  king  presented 
to  them  the  two  great  evils  which  afflicted  the  country 
— the  treason  of  the  bishops,  and  the  intrigues  of  Norby. 
He  offered  to  resign  his  crown  if  his  government  was 
unsatisfactory  to  the  States  and  people.  But  he  was 
eagerly  assured  by  them  of  their  attachment  to  his  per- 
son, of  their  loyal  support  to  his  government,  and  their 
co-operation  in  the  punishment  of  traitors.  Having 
thus  received  a  fresh  sanction  to  his  authority,  Gustavus 
proceeded  to  the  Dales  and  summoned  the  people  to 
meet  him  at  Tuna-Kyrka,  and  held  a  conference  with 
them,  surrounding  them  by  a  considerable  body  of  well- 
armed  troops.  Convinced  by  arguments  and  subdued 
by  his  commanding  presence,  and  experiencing  prob- 
ably a  renewal  of  their  old  affection  and  admiration, 
and  perhaps  overawed  by  the  military  display,  which 


j6  The  Reformation  in  Sweden. 

was  too  large  for  a  mere  escort,  and  yet  not  so  over- 
whelming as  to  mortify  them  by  the  proof  that  they 
were  to  be  forced  into  submission,  they  acknowledged 
that  they  had  been  misled,  and  promised  not  again  to 
be  seduced  from  their  allegiance. 

Then  he  proceeded  at  once  to  secure  the  two  rebel 
bishops.  They  had  fled  to  Norway  and  had  found  a 
refuge  with  the  Archbishop  of  Drontheim.  The  king 
demanded  them  from  the  Norwegian  Council  by  virtue 
of  an  article  of  the  treaty  of  Malmo,  by  which  it  was 
agreed  that  the  rebels  of  one  country  should  not  find 
protection  in  the  other.  The  Council  consented  to  de- 
liver up  the  refugees,  but  demanded  a  safe  conduct  for 
them.  Gustavus  sent  it  in  these  terms:  They  should 
experience  no  evil  in  coming  to  Sweden,  but  there  they 
should  stand  their  trial  before  their  proper  judges,  and 
undergo  what  justice  demanded  and  decreed.  The 
archbishop  suggested  that  their  proper  judges  were 
prelates  of  the  Church.  But  Gustavus  wTould  not  listen 
to  this  plea.  He  asserted  justly  that  those  who  were 
traitors  to  the  State,  should  be  tried  by  the  civil  power; 
and  not  shelter  their  treason  under  a  plea  of  religion. 
It  was  evident  that  the  safety  of  his  throne  depended 
on  the  maintenance  of  this  principle.  He  determined 
to  assert  it  in  this  case  in  a  way  so  startling  as  to  prove 
to  all  that  he  was  not  to  be  deterred  by  any  remaining 
reverence  for  the  Roman  priesthood  from  punishing  the 
treason  of  ecclesiastics,  with  even  more  of  rigor  and 
more  accompaniments  of  disgrace,  than  those  of  civil- 
ians. Sunanvader,  who  was  ill,  had  been  detained  in 
prison  at  Stockholm.  When  the  archbishop  was  near 
the  city  Sunanvader  was  carried  out  to  meet  him;  and 
a  mock  triumphal  entry  of  the  two  took  place.  The 
two  bishops  were  seated,  riding  backwards,  on   half- 


The   Reformation  in  Sweden.  77 

starved  horses  and  in  tattered  Episcopal  robes.  On 
the  head  of  one  was  a  miter  of  bark;  the  other  wore  a 
crown  of  straw  and  a  wooden  half-broken  sword.  How- 
ever much  or  little  of  significant  symbolism  might  have 
been  intended  by  this  travesty  of  power  and  office,  it 
was  plain  enough  that  there  was  in  it  an  evident  ex- 
pression of  defiance  and  contempt  of  the  priesthood. 
A  few  years  earlier  such  an  exhibition  from  whatever 
cause  would  have  created  a  revolt.  But  in  this  a  great 
crowd  followed  with  demonstrations  of  approval,  and  a 
group  of  masked  men  surrounded  and  followed  them, 
shouting,  Here  comes  the  new  king,  the  Lord  Peter 
Sunanvader ! 

Sunanvader  was  sent  to  Upsala  for  trial.  In  addition 
to  the  judges  in  the  case  of  the  archbishop,  there  were 
added  two  bishops  and  the  chief  persons  in  the  Chapter 
of  Upsala.  The  lay  judges  condemned  the  accused, 
and  the  spiritual  protested  against  their  jurisdiction. 
Petitions  for  mercy,  strongly  urged,  were  wholly  un- 
heeded by  the  king.  The  sentence  was  carried  out  at 
Upsala  upon  the  Bishop  of  Westeras  in  February,  1527, 
and  a  few  days  after  upon  the  archbishop  at  Stockholm. 
Character  of  Gustavus  has  been  severely  censured,  even 
this  proceed-  by  Protestant  historians,  for  this  proceeding. 
lng'  But  it  was  evident  that  he  could   hold  his 

own,  only  by  striking  terror  into  the  Papal  party,  and 
by  a  distinct  and  sharp-cut  issue,  at  this  period,  be- 
tween the  Reformation  and  the  Papacy.  It  was  no 
more  than  justice  towards  the  traitors,  who  used  their 
spiritual  power  for  the  overthrow  of  the  government 
as  well  as  for  the  supremacy  of  the  priesthood;  and  it 
was  as  evidently  good  policy  on  the  part  of  the  king, 
whose  conscience  was  now  enlisted  in  behalf  of  the 
Reformation,  and  who  both  as  a  Christian  and  a  patriot 


78  The  Reformation  in  Sweden. 

was  ready  to  stake  his  throne  on  the  failure  or  success 
of  his  efforts  to  destroy  the  Papal  and  the  priestly  power. 

The  character  of  the  policy  of  Gustavus  from  the 
first — the  skillful  use  of  conciliation  where  it  was  ex- 
pedient, and  of  force  and  severity  where  it  was  neces- 
sary, is  well  described  by  Geijer  in  commenting  on 
these  proceedings.  I  quote  part  of  the  passage  as  af- 
fording a  true  key  to  the  proceeding  of  the  king  dur- 
ing all  his  reign,  in  the  midst  of  difficulties,  which  only 
a  master  mind  could  have  overcome.  He  was  a  com- 
bination of  Bismarck  without  his  brutality,  and  of  a 
Napoleon  III.  without  his  inertness. 

"  Men  now  began  to  be  aware  with  whom  they  had 
to  do;  but  they  scarcely  yet  comprehended  the  full 
measure  of  that  intrepidity  which  in  Gustavus  was  us- 
ually evolved  stroke  by  stroke  as  the  resistance  offered, 
and  the  circumstances  of  the  case  demanded,  from  a  be- 
ginning that  was  tranquil  and  even  apparently  com- 
pliant. For  such  always  was  his  commencement,  un- 
less urgent  necessity  prescribed  a  different  line,  and  he 
ever  went  greater  lengths  than  even  his  opponents 
expected.  Signs  like  these  announce  to  us  a  soul 
which  teemed  with  a  future  yet  unrevealed.  Those 
who  wish  to  study  his  character  in  this  phase,  from  its 
earliest  disclosure,  may  be  referred  to  his  correspond- 
ence with  Bishop  Brask,  as  one  of  the  main  sources  of 
the  history  of  the  first  year  of  his  reign.  This  prelate 
was  beyond  camparison  the  most  influential  as  well  as 
the  most  sagacious  and  well-informed  of  his  day  in 
Sweden,  and  in  his  way  an  upright  friend  of  his  coun- 
try. He  treated  the  young  king  from  the  beginning 
with  a  kind  of  fatherly  superiority,  styling  him  '  dear 
Gustavus,'  and  accepting  in  return  the  title  of  '  gra- 
cious Lord.'     Shortly  after  the  election  he  obtained  3 


The  Reformation  in  Sweden.  79 

confirmation  of  all  the  privileges  of  his  Church  and  bish- 
opric. But  he  was  soon  forced  to  feel  the  signiiicance 
of  the  king's  saying  to  the  last  Catholic  archbishop, 
Johannes  Magnus:  «  Thy  grace  and  our  grace  have  not 
room  beneath  one  roof.'  With  the  aggressions  of  Gus- 
tavus  on  the  clergy  began  the  prelate's  opposition;  and 
with  every  impediment  thrown  in  his  way  the  king 
went  one  step  further,  as  if  he  were  more  bent  on  re- 
ducing his  most  powerful  adversary  to  extremities,  so 
that  the  latter  determined  at  length  after  the  example 
of  Johannes  Magnus  to  quit  the  kingdom.  But  he  was 
first  to  see  the  hierarchy  of  Sweden  completely  over- 
thrown." 

Deposition  A  short  time  before  these  events  Johannes 
and  Banish-  Magnus  had  incurred  the  king's  displeasure, 
TannesMig-  both  by  his  hostility  to  the  Reformed  doc- 
nus.  trines,  and   his   luxurious   and   extravagant 

mode  of  life.  He  maintained  a  state  and  pomp  which 
surpassed  that  of  the  king's  court.  He  made  his  Episco- 
pal visitations  with  a  cortege  of  two  hundred  persons; 
and,  like  Cardinal  Wolsey,  he  had  among  the  pages 
of  his  household  the  sons  of  some  of  the  chief  nobles 
of  the  land.  The  king  had  in  vain  remonstrated  with 
him  on  his  unseemly  ostentation  and  luxury.  On  the 
fair  day  of  S.  Eric  he  took  the  archbishop  with  him  to 
the  old  Upsala,  and  there  on  the  summit  of  one  of  the 
mounds,  seated  on  horseback,  with  the  people' around 
him,  much  to  the  disgust  of  the  archbishop,  he  en- 
deavored to  convince  them  that  there  were  too  many 
monks  in  the  country,  and  that  they  were  no  better 
than  a  race  of  vermin  devouring  the  face  of  the  earth; 
and  that  it  was  an  unreasonable  thing  to  pray  in  Latin, 
which  they  did  not  understand.  The  sturdy  but  su- 
perstitious peasantry  called  out  that  they  would  not 


80  The  Reformation  in  Sweden. 

aliow  their  monks  to  be  driven  out,  but  would  them- 
selves feed  and  sustain  them.  This  meeting  took  place 
in  May,  1526,  and  on  their  return  to  Upsala  the  king 
accepted  an  invitation  of  the  archbishop  to  a  feast. 
On  that  occasion  the  archbishop  occupied  a  raised 
seat  on  a  level  of  that  of  the  king,  contrary  to  the  us- 
ual custom  on  such  occasions,  and  said  while  pledging 
him  "  Our  Grace  drinks  to  your  Grace."  The  king  an- 
swered, "  For  our  Grace  and  your  Grace  there  is  not 
room  in  the  same  house."  He  rose  from  the  table 
much  offended,  and  departed  amid  the  smiles  of  the 
courtiers,  and  the  consternation  of  the  ecclesiastics. 
His  dissatisfaction  with  the  archbishop  was  much  in- 
creased when  at  a  conference  with  the  Canons  of  Up- 
sala he  inquired  of  them  on  what  they  grounded  their 
right  to  their  large  possessions;  and  found  that  the 
archbishop  was  determined  to  hold  fast  to  the  extent 
of  his  ability  to  all  the  possessions  and  the  old  immun- 
ities of  the  Church.  Peter  Galle  answered  him  that 
these  possessions  were  granted  by  nobles  and  others, 
and  confirmed  by  kings  and  princes.  "  But,"  asked 
Gustavus,  "what  if  they  have  been  obtained  by  fraud 
— by  preaching  of  purgatory  or  such-like  cozenage  of 
priests  and  friars  ? "  The  archbishop  and  the  other 
members  of  the  Chapter,  with  the  exception  of  George 
Tureson,  the  dean,  made  no  reply.  He  boldly  declared 
that  the  gifts  made  by  kings  and  emperors  cannot  be 
filched  away  without  God's  curse  and  eternal  damnation. 
Upon  suspicion  of  treasonable  practices  the  arch- 
bishop was  imprisoned  for  a  time  in  a  monastery;  but, 
without  being  tried,  he  was  allowed  to  proceed  to 
Poland  on  the  pretense  of  a  mission  to  negotiate  a 
marriage  between  the  king  and  the  daughter  of  Sig- 
ismund.     But    he   furnished    the    archbishop   with    no 


The  Reformation  in  Sweden.  8i 

money;  and  it  was  evident  that  it  was  a  device  of  the 
king  to  get  him  out  of  the  kingdom.  As  soon  as  he 
was  able  to  obtain  means  from  his  clergy,  the  arch- 
bishop proceeded  at  once  to  Dantzic,  and  thence  to 
Rome,  where  he  died  in  great  poverty  in  the  hospital 
of  San  Spirito,  in  1537,  and  was  buried  in  the  Vatican. 
Anti- Papal  Jt  was  in  the  midst  of"  increasing  opposition 
and  Arid-  and  obstacles  that  the  king  himself  took  or 
ures  of  "The  sanctioned  in  others  more  and  more  decided 
King>  measures  against  the  devotions  and  practices 

and  property  of  the  Church.  Olaus  Petri  took  a  wife 
in  Stockholm  in  1525.  His  example  was  soon  fol- 
lowed by  many  other  priests.  Gustavus  would  not 
allow  them  to  be  deposed  or  to  lose  their  position 
and  emoluments.  On  the  contrary,  he  wrote  Bishop 
Brask  that  Olaus  Petri  would  vindicate  that  proceed- 
ing by  the  Word  of  God.  It  was  in  this  year  also 
that  the  New  Testament,  translated  at  his  request  by 
the  Chancellor,  Lars  Anderson,  was  published.  In 
order  to  divert  the  interest  and  the  ambition  of  the 
nobility  away  from  the  Church  and  towards  the  State, 
Gustavus  conferred  on  them  titles,  and  put  them  in 
possession  of  Church  lands,  which  had  been  alienated 
from  the  estates  of  their  ancestors,  as  he  avowed, 
through  the  preaching  of  purgatory  and  other  priestly 
cozenage. 

We  have  seen  that  up  to  this  period,  1525,  Gus- 
tavus had  insisted  that  the  clergy  should  bear  their 
proportionate  part  of  the  burdens  of  the  State.  But 
in  that  year,  on  account  of  the  revolt  of  the  Dalesmen 
and  the  attempts  of  Christian  to  recover  the  throne, 
and  the  diminution  of  the  revenues,  he  went  still  fur- 
ther in  his  demand  upon  the  revenues  of  the  Church. 
At  the  meeting  of  the  States  in  January,  1525,  it  was 


82  The  Reformation  in  Sweden. 

agreed  that  the  tithes,  with  the  exception  of  so  much 
as  should  be  necessary  for  wax-lights  and  the  service 
of  the  altar,  should  be  appropriated  to  the  pay  of  the 
troops,  and  that  the  cavalry  should  be  quartered  upon 
the  monasteries.  It  was  on  this  occasion  that  Bishop 
Brask  admonished  the  king  not  to  appropriate  tithes 
to  secular  uses  nor  to  encroach  upon  the  privileges  of 
the  convents.  He  declared  "  that  as  they  were  not 
endowed  from  crown  lands  but  by  private  property, 
the  king  had  not  the  smallest  right  to  meddle  with 
them,  neither  had  any  previous  monarch  ventured  to 
do  so."  Gustavus  answered  in  effect  that  he  was  com- 
pelled to  this  course  by  the  necessity  which  knew  no 
law,  and  whether  it  were  law  or  no,  his  course  was 
right  in  itself,  and  absolutely  necessary  in  the  emer- 
gency in  which  he  was  placed.  After  this,  in  1526-27, 
he  took  the  ground  distinctly  that  all  Church  prop- 
erty was  the  State's,  and  to  be  employed  by  it  for  the 
best  civil  and  religious  welfare  of  the  people.  It  was 
inevitable  that  these  sweeping  claims,  and  the  high- 
handed enforcement  of  them  which  followed,  would 
lead  to  a  decisive  struggle  of  the  old  and  new.  To 
enter  fully  into  all  the  details  of  this  struggle,  in  which 
the  interests  of  the  Reformation  were  indeed  involved, 
but  which  were  for  the  most  part  civil  and  military, 
would  be  to  lose  sight  for  a  time  almost  entirely  of 
the  religious  questions.  This  constitutes  the  special 
difficulty  of  presenting  the  Reformation  history — the 
religious  history  of  Sweden.  It  is  to  be  discerned 
through — lying  under  as  it  were — its  civil  history.  In 
some  other  countries  the  reverse  of  this  is  true,  as  in 
Bohemia,  and  in  England  during  the  reigns  of  Henry 
VIII.,  of  Edward  VI.,  and  Elizabeth.  There  the  civil 
history   is   best    seen   under   the   religious  history  by 


The  Reformation  in  Sweden.  83 

which  it  was  shaped.  But  in  Sweden,  Gustavus  was 
involved  in  his  civil  administration  in  difficulties  aris- 
ing from  the  exorbitant  power  of  the  clergy  and  the 
magnates  and  the  turbulence  of  the  people — difficul- 
ties which  would  have  existed  if  no  religious  Reforma- 
tion had  been  undertaken,  but  which  were  aggravated 
by  this  underlying,  and,  in  the  beginning,  partially 
hidden  purpose  to  dethrone  the  Papal  power  and  in- 
troduce Lutheran  Protestantism  in  its  place. 
Continued  After  the  decisive  action  of  the  States  in 
Appropria-  Stockholm,  in  January,  1525,  by  which  it 
Chlrc^k  was  decreed  that  tithes  should  be  appro- 
Property.  priated  to  the  payment  of  the  troops,  and 
the  troops  quartered  upon  the  monasteries,  the  king 
more  openly  than  before  laid  his  hand  upon  the  property 
of  the  Church.  At  a  meeting  of  the  States  at  Wad- 
stena  in  the  following  year,  on  the  same  plea  of  State 
necessity,  it  was  enacted  that  the  beneficed  clergy 
should  bear  the  same  burden  in  furnishing  men  at  arms 
as  the  laymen  of  the  same  incomes.  Gustavus  also  at 
this  meeting  confirmed  the  old  privileges  of  the  nobles 
and  permitted  them  to  redeem  that  portion  of  their 
patrimony  which  had  passed  into  the  hands  of  the 
Church  since  Charles  Canutson's  reign.  It  was  a  meas- 
ure well  calculated  to  enlist  the  lords  on  the  side  of 
the  Reformation.  Gustavus  immediately  availed  him- 
self of  this  provision  to  lay  claim  to  the  convent  of 
Gripsholm.  "  You  see,"  said  Bishop  Brask  to  his  brother 
bishops  on  this  occasion,  "  the  fruit  of  your  remissness. 
Our  ruin  is  at  hand,  and  you  yourself  have  helped  it 
on.  The  king,  without  a  single  remonstrance  from  you, 
has  taken  one  step  after  another  in  overthrowing  our 
religion.  He  has  Lutheran  priests  in  his  palace  preach- 
ing daily  that  our  fall  is  near.     He  has  attacked  our 


84  The  Reformation  in  Sweden. 

monasteries  and  you  have  consented  to  his  deeds. 
He  has  allowed  priests  to  marry:  he  has  in  your  very 
presence  subjected  our  faith  to  examination.  Now  he 
snatches  away  our  revenues,  and  you  look  on  dismayed." 
"And,"  says  one  of  the  historians  of  Gustavus,  "well 
might  they  do  so!  For  against  them  was  State  neces- 
sity and  a  determined  will  and  an  almost  absolute  power; 
and  they  themselves  were  not  so  strong  in  truth  and 
righteousness  as  not  to  blench  before  the  formidable 
array." 

The  monks  of  Gripsholm  hastened  to  lay  the  convent 
at  the  feet  of  Gustavus,  not  only  without  remonstrance 
but  with  abject  expressions  of  satisfaction  at  the  sur- 
render. They  close  the  document  of  transfer  with  these 
words:  "  If  through  misunderstanding  of  the  affair  any 
evil  report  should  rise  against  his  Grace  in  consequence 
of  this  proceeding,  we  pledge  our  honor  and  Christian 
faith  that  we  will  repel  it  and  defend  his  Grace  as  we 
honestly  may,  well  knowing  that  his  Grace  has  good 
right  to  recover  the  inheritance  which  was  taken  by 
force  from  his  father." 
T  .    ,■      r    Thus  far  the  king-  had  secured  the  sanction 

Injustice  of  & 

the    King's    of  the  States  for  his   proceedings.     But  he 

proceedings     seemed     now    to    feel    that     he     had     become 

against     the 

Church  of  strong  enough,  through  their  support  and 
sanction  hitherto,  to  act  without  it,  and  of 
his  own  will  to  lay  his  hands  on  Church  property,  and 
arbitrarily  to  intervene  in  the  management  of  Church 
affairs.  He  allowed  dissatisfied  monks  on  application 
to  him  to  leave  their  monasteries.  He  wrote  to  the 
Bishop  of  Abo  that  the  Chapter  should  have  con- 
sulted him  before  they  chose  a  dean,  and  prescribed 
to  them  as  a  sort  of  penance  for  their  presumption  that 
they  should  send  200  marks  a  year  for  the  maintenance 


The  Reformation  in  Sweden.  85 

of  a  good  man — i.  e.,  one  of  his  guard  in  the  palace. 
And  what  was  more  extraordinary,  he  ordered  the 
dean  and  chapter  of  the  same  See  to  change  the  late 
dean's  will.  His  missive  on  this  occasion  is  certainly 
a  remarkable  document,  and  is  appended  in  order  to 
show  the  thoroughly  arbitrary  methods  upon  which 
he  had  entered,  and  which  led,  not  only  to  murmurs 
and  discontent,  but  ultimately  to  a  new  rebellion. 

"We,  Gustavus,  hereby  testify  that  it  has  been 
made  known  to  us  how  the  good  man,  Jacob,  Dean 
of  Abo,  has  left  a  large  sum  of  money  which  he  be- 
queathed in  his  will  according  to  his  pleasure;  but  it 
is  evident  to  any  one  who  will  duly  consider  the  mat- 
ter, that  the  said  money  could  have  been  much  better 
disposed  of;  that  is  to  say,  that  the  greatest  part  of  it 
might  have  been  applied  to  the  public  benefit,  con- 
sidering the  burdens  now  lying  on  the  country,  through 
the  heavy  debt  occasioned  by  the  war,  which  has  been 
now  a  long  time  waged  against  King  Christian.  We 
therefore  enjoin  the  Bishop  and  Chapter  of  Abo  to 
modify  the  said  will  according  to  our  ideas,  which  we 
have  already  partly  explained  to  his  executors,  so  that 
while  his  heirs,  relations  and  the  poor  get  the  share 
that  is  given  them,  the  rest  may  be  applied,  as  far  as 
it  will  go,  to  the  payment  of  the  debt;  when  that 
is  done  we  acquit  his  executors  of  all  other  claim 
from  those  interested  in  said  will,  whosoever  they 
may  be." 

It  was  impossible  that  such  arbitrary  proceed- 
ings should  not  excite  murmurs  and  dissatisfaction. 
Coupled  as  they  were  with  the  famine  that  followed, 
and  the  increased  heavy  taxation,  they  led  to  a  new 
rebellion  in  Dalecarlia. 


86  The  Reformation  in  Sweden. 

Rebellion  in  The  prevailing  disaffection,  which  ripened 
Daiecariia.  jnto  revolt  in  Dalecarlia,  gathered  about  a 
young  impostor  who  professed  to  be  the  son  of  Sten 
Sture.  The  youth  whom  he  personated  had  been  sent 
to  Dantzic  in  1520,  and  had  returned  to  Calmar  at  the 
same  time  that  Gustavus  procured  the  liberation  of 
Christina.  He  was  at  the  time  that  this  pretender 
appeared,  1527,  at  the  court  of  Gustavus,  who  was 
falsely  accused  of  having  taken  his  life.  It  was  this 
false  rumor,  propagated  by  the  partisans  of  Christian 
and  Norby,  which  gave  rise  to  this  attempt.  The  pre- 
tender declared  that  Gustavus  had  ordered  that  he 
should  be  killed,  but  that  he  escaped  from  the  court 
of  the  heretic  tyrant  who  had  sought  his  life.  A  sol- 
dier of  the  late  Regent,  Peter  Grym,  assisted  him  in 
his  deception  and  taught  him  how  to  play  his  part. 
He  was  an  illegitimate  child  of  an  unknown  father, 
and  had  acquired  in  the  service  of  a  nobleman  the  arts 
and  manners  which  gave  plausibility  among  the  simple 
Dalesmen  to  his  claim.  He  is  described  as  handsome, 
eloquent,  and  full  of  assurance  and  assumption.  When- 
ever he  spoke  of  his  pretended  father  it  was  with  so 
much  seeming  feeling  that  the  Dalesmen  could  not 
refrain  from  weeping  with  him.  He  thanked  them  for 
their  love  to  his  father,  and  bade  them  to  pray  for  his 
soul.  He  proceeded  to  Norway,  where  he  was  taken 
up  by  the  archbishop,  and  through  his  influence  be- 
trothed to  a  lady  of  large  fortune  and  high  family. 
Returning  to  the  Dales  with  the  aid  he  derived  from 
Norway,  he  rallied  some  supporters,  although  opinion 
with  regard  to  him  was  much  divided,  and  he  deter- 
mined to  resist  the  forces  of  the  king.  Christina  Gyl- 
lenstierna,  at  the  king's  request,  wrote  to  the  Dales- 
men disowning  her  pretended  son. 


The  Reformation  in  Sweden.  87 

Complaints  After  some  skirmishing  with  the  king's  troops, 
of  the  Dales-  the  Dalesmen  came  to  a  parley  with  the  com- 
men  missioners  whom  the  king  had  sent  to  confer 

with  them  in  reference  to  their  alleged  grievances. 
The  complaints  transmitted  by  the  commission  were 
answered  by  Gustavus  with  the  patience  which  he  could 
always  display  upon  occasion,  and  which  the  critical 
circumstances  in  which  he  was  now  placed  made  expe- 
dient. They  complained  that  there  was  but  little  coin 
in  circulation,  of  heavy  taxes,  of  dearness  of  provisions, 
and  of  the  profanation  of  monasteries.  One  of  the  most 
curious  of  their  grievances,  and  one  which  shows  the 
simplicity  of  the  times,  and  the  freedom  with  which 
they  addressed  their  kings,  was  their  objection  to  the 
new-fashioned  slashed  doublets  that  were  worn  at  court. 
They  objected  to  the  Lutheranism  which  prevailed  at 
Stockholm,  and  the  psalms  and  hymns  that  were  sung 
in  public  worship.  These  and  similar  grievances,  in 
which  the  gravest  and  most  trivial  matters  were  ab- 
surdly mixed,  were  answered  fully  and  in  their  order  by 
the  king.  New  coin  should  soon  be  struck.  The  heavy 
taxes  were  unavoidable  after  the  war,  but  would  be  di- 
minished as  soon  as  peace  was  assured  and  Christian 
disabled  from  doing  further  mischief.  The  dearness  of 
provisions  was  due  to  famine,  which  was  God's  visitation 
and  should  be  borne  with  pious  patience.  He  quite 
agreed  with  them  about  slashed  doublets — he  did  not 
like  them — but  what  could  he  do  with  giddy  young 
courtiers  who  would  adopt  every  foreign  folly  that  was 
imported  ?  And  what  concern  was  it  of  theirs  how  he 
and  the  courtiers  dressed  ?  As  to  Lutheranism  and  the 
Swedish  hymns,  he  answered — not  very  ingenuously — 
that  he  knew  little  about  Lutheranism;  but  that  he  was 
determined  to  put  a  stop  to  priestly  impositions  and 


88  The  Reformation  in  Sweden. 

secure  the  pure  preaching  of  the  Word  of  God;  and  that 
it  was  certainly  more  sensible  to  sing  hymns  in  Swedish 
which  they  understood  than  in  Latin  of  which  they 
were  wholly  ignorant.  He  expressed  surprise  that  they 
should  meddle  with  questions  such  as  these,  which  were 
quite  beyond  their  capacity,  and  not  leave  them  to  be 
settled  by  the  State  Council  and  learned  clerks  and 
prelates. 

The  result  of  these  conferences  and  communications 
of  the  king  was  that  the  Dalesmen  agreed  to  lay  down 
their  arms  and  abandon  the  pretender;  and  on  the  part 
of  Gustavus  there  was  an  assurance  of  complete  oblivion 
of  all  that  had  been  done  or  attempted  in  his  favor.  It 
was  furthermore  decided  that  a  meeting  of  the  States 
should  take  place  at  Westeras  in  which  all  the  questions 
at  issue  between  the  king,  the  Dalesmen,  and  the  clergy, 
should  be  discussed  and  settled. 

Meeting  of  This  meeting  of  the  States  in  Westeras,  as 
the  states  in  it  was  most  important  in  view  of  the  crisis 
at  which  it  was  summoned  and  most  mem- 
orable for  its  results,  was  also  remarkable  for  the  un- 
usual numbers  for  that  age  by  which  it  was  attended. 
There  were  present,  4  Bishops,  4  Deans,  15  State  Coun- 
cillors, 120  Nobles,  32  Burghers  (exclusive  of  the  Town 
Council  of  Stockholm,  who  were  present  and  had  a  con- 
siderable influence  upon  their  proceedings),  14  Miners, 
representative  of  that  important  interest,  and  105  peas- 
ants from  all  parts  of  the  kingdom,  except  the  Dales, 
who  felt  that  the  question  between  them  and  the  king 
was  one  of  the  most  important  which  was  to  be  settled. 
The  nobles  at  the  king's  request  came  armed.  He 
reckoned  on  their  support  in  striking  the  decisive  blow 
against  the  bishops  and  the  clergy,  upon  which  he  was 
resolved. 


The  Reformation  in  Sweden.  89 

Gustavus  opened  the  session  on  the  Sunday  before 
the  midsummer's  day  by  a  magnificent  banquet  in  which 
he  conspicuously  displayed  his  purpose  to  bring  down 
the  hierarchy.  The  indignities  offered  to  Knut  and 
Sunanvader  might  seem  to  have  been  prompted  solely 
by  their  repeated  treasons;  the  insults  heaped  upon 
Johannes  Magnus  to  have  been  the  due  reward  of  his 
vanity  and  folly;  but  the  king  now  determined  to  take 
a  step  which  could  not  be  mistaken.  The  whole  hier- 
archy was  now  to  be  humbled.  They  had  always  been 
assigned  the  highest  places  in  all  public  proceedings, 
and  especially  in  feasts — the  bishops  taking  position 
above  even  the  regents  of  the  kingdom.  But  on  this 
occasion  the  place  assigned  them  was  below  the  State 
Council  and  the  higher  nobles. 

This  was  no  light  matter  in  itself,  and  it  was  alarm- 
ingly significant  as  an  indication  of  the  intended  policy 
of  the  king  towards  the  prelates  and  the  Church.  The 
bishops  met,  with  closed  doors,  in  the  church  of  S. 
Egedius,  to  consider  the  situation.  Their  leader,  Bish- 
op Brask,  declared  that  the  purpose  of  the  king  was 
patent.  He  no  doubt  intended  to  take  away  their  rev- 
enues and  castles  and  prelatical  prerogatives,  and  de- 
grade them  to  the  level  of  mere  parish  priests.  But  to 
this,  if  they  were  wise,  they  never  would  consent.  They 
could  not  indeed  resist  force;  but  they  could  wield  a 
force  greater  far  than  that  of  kings' — even  that  of  in- 
terdict and  excommunication.  Mightier  monarchs  than 
Gustavus  had  been  prostrated  by  the  thunders  of  the 
Church.  Let  them  remain  true  to  the  Pope  and  their 
order  and  they  might  retain  or  recover  their  position; 
but  if  they  yielded  they  would  be  held  no  better  than 
serfs  or  cowards. 

At    Brask's    suggestion    the   assembled    dignitaries 


90  The  Reformation  in  Sweden. 

signed  a  paper,  in  which  they  pledged  themselves  to 
protect  the  Church's  rights,  to  be  true  to  the  Pope, 
never  to  adopt  the  Lutheran  heresy,  and  to  await  with 
patience  the  change  of  government.  They  hid  this 
document  under  the  floor  of  the  church,  where  fifteen 
years  after  it  was  discovered. 

The  King's  The  king,  through  his  chancellor,  thanked 
Address.  the  Diet  for  having  assembled  at  his  call, 
in  the  present  emergency,  in  such  large  numbers.  He 
reminded  them  that  at  Wadstena  he  had  offered  to  re- 
sign the  regency.  In  consequence  of  the  state  of  the 
kingdom  at  that  time  he  had  been  obliged  to  seek  aid 
in  Lubeck  and  other  towns,  and  hence  the  large  in- 
debtedness and  heavy  taxes  of  the  kingdom.  After 
the  surrender  of  Stockholm  the  nobles  had  chosen  him 
king,  and  his  election  had  been  confirmed  by  all-  the 
orders  of  the  State.  He  had  then  reluctantly  accepted 
the  office,  and  had  since  often  repented  having  done 
so.  "  For,"  and  here  he  dropped  his  apologetic  and 
explanatory  style,  "  who  could  rule  with  any  comfort 
such  a  people  ?  Who  especially  would  desire  to  rule 
the  Dalesmen,  who  were  ever  on  the  look-out  for  some- 
thing to  find  fault  with,  ever  ready  to  break  into  open 
revolt,  if  the  king  did  not  submit  to  their  capricious 
and  unreasonable  demands  ?  They  were  ever  boasting 
that  they  had  placed  him  upon  the  throne.  But  after 
the  victory  at  Westeras,  when  the  liberation  was  by 
no  means  fully  assured,  most  of  them  went  home  again." 
Passing  from  this  outburst  of  rebuke,  the  chancellor  pro- 
ceeded to  vindicate  the  proceedings  of  Gustavus,  in 
reference  to  the  monasteries,  the  taxing  of  the  clergy, 
the  limitation  of  the  powers  of  the  bishops,  and  the 
introduction  of  the  pure  preaching  of  the  Gospel. 
The   king,   he    said,  was   more   than   ready  to  resign 


The  Reformation  in  Sweden.  91 

the  throne  if  the  people  were  dissatisfied  and  wished 
him  to  do  so;  but  as  long  as  he  occupied  it  he  was 
fixed  in  his  purpose  of  pursuing  the  policy  which  un- 
der a  deep  sense  of  duty  to  his  country  he  had  hitherto 
adopted. 

It  was  a  bold  but  probably  a  politic  proceeding  on 
the  part  of  the  king.  It  was  one  of  those  decisive  oc- 
casions on  which  a  great  man,  driven  at  bay,  and  los- 
ing his  temper  and  self-control,  and  regardless  of  con- 
sequences, assumes  a  defiant  attitude  which  ultimately 
stands  him  in  better  stead  than  his  usual  more  restrained 
and  politic  methods  of  proceeding.  It  was  evident  that 
he  now  stood  at  the  turning  point  of  his  career,  where 
he  was  either  to  be  unseated  or  to  be  more  firmly  fixed 
in  his  position  upon  the  throne.  It  was  also  clear  that 
he  had  become  so  harassed  that  he  had  lost  his  usual 
patience  and  forbearance,  and  was  really  indifferent  to 
the  result.  He  did  not  desire  to  be  king  unless  he 
could  have  the  ample  power  necessary  to  discharge  the 
office  at  an  era  so  disturbed  and  among  a  people  so  in- 
dependent in  spirit,  so  prone  to  complain  and  to  adopt 
a  tone  of  dictation  to  their  rulers.  If  he  had  attempted 
to  wheedle  or  conciliate  them  we  can  scarcely  doubt 
that  he  would  have  failed.  By  taking  a  high  tone  of 
indignation,  which,  unlike  some  of  the  first  Napoleon's 
outbursts  of  feigned  passion  for  evil  ends,  was  genuine, 
and  by  the  expression  of  more  than  willingness  to  re- 
sign his  office,  which  was  evidently  real,  the  admira- 
tion of  some  of  his  opponents  might  be  awakened,  and 
others  become  alarmed  at  the  view  of  the  anarchy 
which  would  probably  result  from  his  abdication. 
Whether  or  no  this  result  was  in  his  thought,  it  was 
immediately  brought  about  by  the  strong  reaction 
which  ensued. 


92  The  Reformation  in  Sweden. 

Opposition  The  ruling  spirit  of  the  opposition,  Bishop 
to  the  King.  Brask,  who  could  no  longer  doubt  that  the 
existence  of  the  Romish  Church  in  Sweden  and  the 
prerogatives  of  his  own  order  depended  on  the  result 
of  this  Diet — had  arranged  the  method  of  proceeding, 
which  he  hoped  would  lead  to  the  persistent  refusal 
of  Gustavus  to  wear  a  crown  so  lined  with  irritating 
cares,  and  the  acceptance  of  his  resignation  by  the 
States.  He  had  induced  Thure  Johnson,  the  senior 
member  of  the  king's  council,  and  therefore  next  to 
the  king  in  position  in  the  kingdom,  to  approve  his 
views  and  second  his  efforts.  Accordingly,  when  the 
address  had  been  read  and  the  king  demanded  an 
answer  of  the  nobles  and  bishops,  Thure  Johnson 
requested  that  Bishop  Brask  might  give  his  opinion. 
Gustavus  could  not  but  have  perceived  that  this  pro- 
ceeding had  been  pre-arranged,  and  this  knowledge 
was  by  no  means  calculated  to  calm  his  excitement. 
The  bishop  replied  to  the  appeal  that  he  was  well 
aware  of  the  allegiance  which  he  owed  to  the  king; 
but  he  and  all  his  order  were  equally  bound  to  obey 
the  Pope  in  things  spiritual,  and  that  without  his 
concurrence  he  could  not  consent  to  any  change  of 
doctrine,  nor  to  any  diminution  of  the  Church's  rights 
and  possessions.  If,  indeed,  unscrupulous  priests  had 
sought  to  enrich  themselves  by  working  upon  the  su- 
perstitions of  the  laity — a  course  which  the  heads  of 
the  Church  themselves  condemned — let  such  cases 
be  proved  and  punished. 

The  Kin^s  The  king  asked  the  nobles  and  the  State 
indignant  Councillors  if  this  reply  seemed  to  them  suf- 
resignation  ficient.  Thure  Johnson  said  that  he  could 
ofthethrone.  not  but  think  that  the  Bishop's  answer  was 
in  the  main  right,  though  not  a  complete  reply  to  all 


The  Reformation  in  Sweden.  93 

that  the  king  had  brought  forward.  Gustavus  was 
too  indignant  to  measure  his  words,  or  even  to  re- 
strain himself  within  the  bounds  of  his  royal  dignity. 
"  Then,"  said  he,  "we  have  no  will  longer  to  be  your 
king.  From  you  we  had  expected  another  answer; 
but  now  we  cannot  wonder  that  the  common  people 
should  give  us  all  manner  of  disobedience  and  mislik- 
ing,  when  they  have  such  ringleaders.  Get  they  not 
rain,  the  fault  is  ours;  if  sunshine  fail  them,  it  is  the 
same  cry;  if  bad  years,  hunger,  and  pest  come,  so  must 
we  bear  the  blame.  All  ye  will  be  our  masters. 
Monks  and  priests  and  creatures  of  the  Pope  ye  set 
over  our  heads;  and  for  all  our  toil  for  your  welfare 
we  have  no  other  reward  to  expect  than  that  ye 
would  gladly  see  the  axe  at  our  neck;  and  there  are 
none  of  you  but  gladly  grasp  its  handle.  Who  would 
be  your  king  on  such  terms  ?  Not  the  worst  fiend  in 
hell,  much  less  a  man  !  Therefore  look  ye  to  it  that 
ye  release  me  fairly  of  the  government,  and  restore 
to  me  that  which  I  have  disbursed  of  my  own  stock 
for  the  general  weal.  Then  will  I  depart  and  never 
see  again  my  ungrateful  fatherland."  The  king,  at  these 
words,  burst  into  tears,  and  hastily  quitted  the  hall. 

It  is  not  often  that  such  momentous  results  have  hung 
upon  one  short  speech.  The  Reformation  in  Sweden, 
the  heroic  services  of  Gustavus  Adolphus  in  behalf  of 
periled  Protestantism  in  Europe,  the  prevention,  it  is 
not  too  much  to  say,  of  the  crushing  out  of  Protestant- 
ism in  Germany — all  these  great  issues  hung  suspended 
on  the  result  of  that  short,  impassioned  speech. 
TheComter-  When  Gustavus  disappeared  a  deep  silence 
nation  of  the  fell  upon  the  assembly.  At  length  the  chan- 
cellor came  forward,  and  invited  them  in  the 
great  difficulty  in  which  they  were  involved  to  offer 


94  The  Reformation  in  Sweden. 

up  their  united  prayers  to  God  for  guidance.  "  We 
have  only  the  alternative  to  choose,  either  to  follow 
the  king,  as  he  has  proposed,  and  entreat  him  to  carry 
on  the  government,  or  to  pay  him  what  he  has  ex- 
pended for  the  State,  and  to  choose  another  king." 
They  were,  however,  too  much  confounded  by  the 
scene  which  they  had  witnessed  to  determine  any- 
thing that  day.  Thure  Johnson  put  on  an  appearance 
of  resolution  and  bluster,  and  marched  to  his  lodgings 
preceded  by  a  drum,  as  if  to  announce  a  victory,  and 
to  express  his  joy  at  the  result.  He  exclaimed,  as  he 
marched  on,  that  "he  defied  any  man  to  make  him  a 
Lutheran  or  a  heathen."  But  when  in  the  meeting  on 
the  next  day  the  lords  and  clergy  did  not  come  to 
any  decision,  the  peasants  grew  impatient,  and  said 
if  all  things  were  well  considered  Gustavus  had  done 
them  no  injury,  and  that  unless  the  nobles  soon  set- 
tled something,  they  would  take  the  matter  into  their 
own  hands.  The  merchants  and  shop-keepers  sup- 
ported the  peasants,  and  the  burghers  of  Stockholm 
declared  that  they  would  hold  that  city  for  the  king. 
Magnus  Sommer,  Bishop  of  Strengness,  declared  that 
the  bishops  did  not  wish  to  be  so  protected  as  to 
leave  the  kingdom  a  prey  to  its  worst  enemies.  The 
declaration  was  received  with  great  applause.  Many 
declared  that  they  would  have  no  other  king  but  Gus- 
tavus. They  desired  to  hear  a  discussion  upon  the 
differences  of  the  Catholic  and  the  Protestant  doc- 
trines. Accordingly,  Olaus  Petri  and  Peter  Galle 
argued  the  question  until  late  in  the  day.  The 
peasants  compelled  Galle,  who  commenced  the  dis- 
cussion in  Latin,  to  speak  in  Swedish.  The  im- 
pression left  by  this  discussion  was  favorable  to  the 
Reformation. 


The   Reformation  in  Sweden.  95 

The  King  While  these  events  were  in  progress  in  the 
induced    to    Diet,  Gustavus  held  his  court  at  the  castle 

withdraw  i      1  i        i  • 

his  Resigna-  surrounded  by  his  military  staff,  and  passed 
tlou-  the   time   with   them   in  various   diversions. 

His  whole  bearing  was  that  of  a  man  who  had  been 
relieved  of  a  heavy  burden.  But  on  the  third  day  the 
burghers  and  the  peasants  said  to  the  nobles  that  if 
they  chose  to  be  the  ruin  of  the  king  and  kingdom,  they 
with  the  aid  of  the  king  would  ruin  them;  and  that  they 
had  already  sent  a  message  to  the  king  to  that  effect. 
Thereupon  several  of  the  nobles  entreated  Thure  Johnson 
to  cease  his  opposition  to  the  king.  He  sullenly  agreed 
to  do  so,  on  condition  that  the  king  would  agree  not 
to  lead  the  people  into  any  heresy.  The  Diet  accepted 
his  consent,  and  took  no  notice  of  the  condition  which 
he  attached  to  it. 

Thereupon  Lars  Anderson  and  Olaus  Petri  were  sent 
to  Gustavus  to  entreat  him  still  to  hold  the  throne. 
They  were  met  with  a  short  and  sharp  refusal.  On  their 
return  they  prayed  that  if  any  further  communications 
were  to  be  made  to  the  king,  it  might  be  by  other  mes- 
sengers. Knut  Anderson  and  the  Bishop  of  Strengness 
undertook  the  task;  but  they  also  came  back  unsuc- 
cessful. The  anxiety  now  became  intense.  The  future 
before  the  Diet  now  seemed  to  be  a  civil  war,  and  the 
re-appearance  and  perhaps  the  reinstatement  of  King 
Christian.  The  prospect  was  too  dreadful  to  be  con- 
templated with  composure.  All  opposition  vanished, 
and  the  Diet  became  an  importunate  supplicant.  The 
last  committee  that  was  sent  to  the  king  fell  on  their 
knees  and  wept.  The  king  at  length  relented,  and  con- 
sented to  meet  the  States  on  the  following  day.  His 
long  resistance  to  these  appeals  can  as  well  be  recon- 
ciled— perhaps   better — with   the   theory  that  he  was 


96  The  Reformation  in  Sweden. 

sincere  in  his  purpose  to  abdicate  the  throne,  as  to  that 
which  would  regard  the  whole  proceeding  as  a  skillful 
scheme  to  bring  the  Diet  to  his  feet,  and  to  secure  their 
pledges  of  unconditional  surrender  and  obedience.  For 
if  he  were  sincere  and  desirous  to  withdraw  from  a  con- 
viction that  he  could  not  succeed  in  his  government, 
unless  the  lords  and  people  became  more  loyal  to  him, 
and  more  ready  to  aid  him  in  putting  down  the  priestly 
party,  he  certainly  would  refuse  to  revoke  that  decision, 
and  persist  in  his  refusal  until  he  should  be  convinced 
that  such  a  change  had  been  wrought  in  the  feelings 
of  his  opponents  as  would  seem  to  furnish  a  guaranty 
that  hereafter  he  might  rely  upon  their  hearty  co- 
operation and  support. 

On  his  appearance  in  the  Diet,  attended  by  his  State 
Council  and  a  splendid  life-guard,  he  was  received  with 
hearty  demonstrations  of  applause.  Now  the  three  es- 
tates, the  nobles,  burghers,  and  peasants,  with  one  voice 
sanctioned  his  demands. 

Gustavus  had  triumphed.  His  foes  were,  for  the  time 
at  least,  silenced,  if  not  reconciled.  Thus  far  the  Ref- 
ormation has  been  seen  struggling  for  life  and  recogni- 
tion. Hereafter  we  shall  see  it  established,  indeed,  but 
violently  opposed,  and  still  compelled  to  unceasing 
warfare  with  foes  who  postponed  its  complete  ascend- 
ency, and  hindered  its  full  development.  During  all  the 
remainder  of  the  reign  of  Gustavus,  his  history  at  the 
same  time  is  or  involves  the  history  of  the  Reformation. 


CHAPTER  V. 

THE     ESTABLISHMENT     AND     CONTINUED    STRUGGLES 
OF    THE    REFORMATION. 

FROM  the  Diet  of  Westeras  may  be  dated  the  es- 
tablishment of  the  Reformation  in  Sweden.     But 
its  progress  during  the  reign  of  Gustavus  was  slow,  and 
in  that  of  Eric  it  was  arrested  and  temporarily  paralyzed. 
,    The   demands  or  propositions  of  the   king, 

Decrees    of  L       L  _  -.   - 

the  Diet  of  according  to  the  custom  of  the  Swedish 
Westeras.  j)iets,  were  not  voted  upon  by  a  body  as 
a  whole,  but  were  answered  by  each  class  for  itself.  0 
Accordingly  there  was  not  the  same  cordial  acquies- 
cence in  all  the  answers  that  were  rendered;  and  the  king 
could  judge  by  the  tone  of  the  reply  how  far  he  could 
rely  upon  the  loyalty  and  support  of  the  class  by  which 
it  was  given.  The  bishops  gave  a  forced  submission 
to  the  decrees,  but  after  this  period  they  were  no  longer 
summoned  to  the  Diet.  The  decree  of  the  Diet  con- 
tained, i.  A  mutual  engagement  to  resist  all  attempts 
at  rebellion.  2.  A  grant  of  power  to  the  king  to  take 
in  his  own  hands  the  castles  and  strongholds  of  the 
Bishops;  to  fix  their  revenues  and  those  of  the  canons 
and  prebends;  to  levy  fines  and  to  regulate  monasteries. 
3.  Authority  was  given  to  the  nobles  to  resume  the 
lands  which  had  been  conveyed  to  churches  and 
monasteries  since  the  inquest  of  Charles  Canutson,  if 


98  The  Reformation  in  Sweden. 

they  could  substantiate  their  claims  before  a  court,  and 
by  a  verdict  of  a  jury.  4.  Liberty  was  assured  to  the 
preachers  "  to  proclaim  the  pure  Word  of  God,"  "  but 
not,"  the  barons  added,  "  uncertain  miracles,  human 
inventions  and  fables." 

We  can  see  in  the  answer  of  the  burghers  and  peasants 
concerning  the  faith  their  lingering  misgiving  and  in- 
disposition to  give  to  it  an  emphatic  assent.  They 
declare  that  inquiry  should  be  made  into  it,  but  that 
the  matter  passed  their  understanding.  The  bishops 
declared  "  that  they  were  content,  however  rich  or 
poor  his  grace  would  have  them  to  be."  In  the  supple- 
ment of  the  statute  called  "The  Ordinance  of  Westeras" 
the  bishops  are  authorized  to  fill  up  the  vacant  bene- 
fices, but  if  they  should  appoint  murderers,  drunkards, 
or  such  as  should  be  unable  to  preach  God's  Word,  that 
they  might  be  displaced  and  others  of  the  king's  ap- 
pointment substituted.  It  was  provided  that  fines  for 
fornication  should  be  paid  to  the  king  and  not  to  the 
bishops.  No  fines  shall  be  inflicted  for  working  on 
saints'  days.  The  bishops  were  to  render  to  the  king 
an  account  of  the  revenues,  that  he  might  settle  what 
portion  they  would  be  permitted  to  retain.  The  clergy 
should  be  amenable,  in  secular  affairs,  to  the  civil  juris- 
diction. The  property  of  the  deceased  clergy  should 
fall  to  their  lawful  heirs,  and  not  to  the  bishops.  Men- 
dicant friars  should  be  permitted  to  leave  their  convents 
to  beg  only  for  five  weeks  in  the  summer,  and  five  in 
the  winter.  The  sick  should  not  be  forced  by  the  priests 
to  make  a  will.  The  clergy  should  not  withhold  the 
Sacrament  at  Easter,  or  any  other  time,  for  the  debts 
due  to  themselves.  And,  finally,  the  Gospel  should  be 
taught  to  the  children  in  all  the  schools. 

It  is  clear  that  if  Gustavus  had  not  just  won  a  victory 


The  Reformation  in  Sweden.  99 

over  his  foes,  and  been  tacitly  admitted,  even  by  them, 
as  necessary  to  preserve  the  State  from  anarchy  and 
intestine  war,  he  could  not  have  acquired  such  mastery 
over  the  Diet  as  that  which  induced  them  or  forced  them 
to  pass  this  sweeping  and  radical  decree.  The  partic- 
ulars enumerated  in  the  decree  exhibit  at  once  the 
degraded  condition  of  the  clergy,  the  enormous  power 
and  possessions  of  the  bishops,  and  their  rapacious 
robbery  of  the  rights  and  possessions  of  the  people. 
They  lived  in  fortified  castles  as  feudal  lords.  They 
rode  forth  from  them  on  episcopal  progresses  and  vis- 
itations, attended  by  hundreds  of  military  body-guards. 
Under  the  control  of  the  Bishop  of  Linkoping  there 
were  more  than  six  hundred  benefices  and  estates ;  under 
the  Bishop  of  Abo  more  than  four  hundred,  and  under 
the  Archbishop  almost  as  many  as  both  of  them  com- 
bined. Never  was  a  poor  and  small  kingdom  so  op- 
pressed and  impoverished  by  a  grasping  and  lordly 
hierarchy.  That,  while  the  great  body  of  the  people 
had  not  yet  accepted  the  reformed  faith,  nor  emancipated 
their  minds  from  absolute  and  abject  submission  to  the 
clergy,  Gustavus  should  have  been  able  to  pass  and 
enforce  these  decrees,  without  exciting  a  revolution, 
demonstrates  the  imperial  ascendency  of  his  character, 
by  the  blended  skill  and  courage  with  which  he  over- 
came the  manifold  difficulties  of  his  position. 

When  all  these  provisions  had  been  con- 
Treatment  firmed,  the  king  immediately  turned  to  the 
of  the  Bish-    bishops  and  demanded  first  from  the  Bishop 

of  Strengness  the  Castle  of  Tilnelso,  which 
the  latter  declared  himself  ready  to  surrender.  The 
same  answer  was  returned  by  the  Bishop  of  Skara  to 
the  demand  of  the  Castle  of  Lecko.  But  when  the 
king  came  to  Bishop  Brask  and  demanded  his  castle, 


ioo  The  Reformation  in  Sweden. 

"silence  and  sighs,"  says  Geijer,  "were  the  only  reply." 
Thure  Johnson  begged  for  his  old  friend  that  the  castle 
might  be  spared  him  during  his  lifetime,  but  the  king 
answered  shortly,  "  No."  Eight  lords  of  the  council 
were  obliged  on  the  spot  to  become  sureties  for  the 
bishop's  obedience.  Forty  men  of  his  body-guard  were 
taken  from  him,  and  enrolled  in  the  king's  army.  At  the 
same  time  the  king  sent  commissioners  to  the  principal 
churches  and  monasteries  of  Sweden  to  take  account 
of  their  endowments,  revenues  and  possessions.  Bishop 
Brask  succeeded,  by  a  seeming  submission,  in  freeing 
himself  from  the  securities  which  he  was  obliged  to 
give;  and  on  the  pretense  of  going  on  a  sort  of  mission- 
ary expedition  to  the  island  of  Gothland,  he  escaped 
to  Poland,  and  made  his  way  to  Rome,  where  he  died. 
He  was  the  most  eminent  man,  next  to  Gustavus,  of 
that  generation  in  Sweden;  and  it  is  by  no  means 
certain  that  the  king  did  not  know  and  rejoice  in  his 
intended  expatriation.  Whether  the  indignation  which 
he  expressed  at  the  bishop's  escape  was  feigned  or 
real,  it  gave  him  an  opportuni-ty  to  say  to  him  some 
things  which  were  all  the  more  cutting  because  they 
were  true.  He  wrote  to  him  "that  formerly  good 
men  were  reluctant  to  take  the  Episcopal  office,  but 
when  once  they  had  entered  on  it  they  would  willingly 
die  for  it,  and  would  not  be  separated  from  their  sheep 
until  driven  from  them.  It  is  not  so  with  you,  but  you 
have  done  quite  the  contrary.  You  pressed  into  the 
office,  and  without  necessity  or  compulsion  have  fled  from 
it.  As  long  as  the  case  was  such  that  you  could  milk, 
shear  and  slay  the  flock,  you  were  right  at  hand;  but 
when  the  Word  of  God  came  and  said  that  you  should 
feed  the  flock  of  Christ,  and  not  shear  and  slay  them, 
then  you  fled."     (Anjou:  Reform  in  Sweden,  p.  242.) 


The  Reformation  in  Sweden.  ioi 

„  „    ,  .,     There  was  an   article  in  the   Ordinance  of 

Fall  of  the 

Monastic    Westeras   which    provided    for  the   mainte- 
System.  nance  of  the  existing  members  of  the  relig- 

ious houses  "  that  they  might  praise  and  serve  God." 
In  the  mood  of  mind  of  Gustavus  towards  all  the  pa- 
pal clergy,  and  especially  towards  the  monks,  it  was 
scarcely  to  be  expected  that  this  provision  should  be 
very  strictly  observed.  The  States  assembled  at  Up- 
sala  in  1528  complained  of  the  king  that,  instead  of 
observing  that  article,  he  had  induced  monks  and  nuns 
to  leave  their  convents  and  to  marry,  and  had  expelled 
others  whose  conduct  was  reprehensible,  instead  of 
leaving  them  to  the  chastisement  of  their  ecclesiastical 
superiors.  No  doubt  pressure  was  brought  to  bear 
upon  the  monasteries  by  Gustavus  to  induce  them  to 
make  an  early  surrender.  When  the  whole  matter  in 
general  terms  was  put  in  the  hands  of  the  king,  it  is  not 
surprising,  in  view  of  the  gross  vices  that  prevailed 
in  many  of  these  institutions,  that  a  man  of  so  decided 
character  as  Gustavus  should  not  allow  himself  to  be 
arrested  in  his  work  by  technicalities.  He  was  em- 
powered to  break  them  up;  the  sooner  they  were  de- 
stroyed the  better  would  the  interests  of  morality  and 
the  welfare  of  the  kingdom  be  subserved.  This  was 
the  summary  logic  which  satisfied  his  mind.  No  doubt 
the  great  good  that  was  accomplished  was  accompanied 
with  instances  of  individual  suffering;  but  if  reformations 
waited  until  no  one  could  suffer  from  them,  they  would 
never  come. 
~,    p..        It  is  to  be  observed  that  adherence  to  the 

The  Episco- 
pal Succes-    Papal  Church  was  not,  as  in  England,  for- 

slon'  bidden  and  punished  with  fines  and  penal- 

ties.    The  bishops  were  not  dispossessed  of  their  sees. 
They  were  deprived,  indeed,  of  a  large  part  of  their 


102  The  Reformation  in  Sweden. 

emoluments,  and  exhorted  to  preach  the  pure  Word 
of  God,  and  were  not  permitted  to  punish  heretics 
or  to  brand  Protestantism  as  heresy;  and  they  were 
stripped  of  many  of  their  old  prerogatives  and  privi- 
leges. There  was  no  fanatical  war,  as  in  Scotland, 
against  the  Episcopal  order  as  such,  but  only  against 
its  overgrown  immunities  and  privileges  and  its  enor- 
mous power.  On  the  contrary,  it  was  the  effort  of 
the  Government  to  bring  over  the  bishops  to  the  ac- 
ceptance of  the  new  faith  by  influence,  and  by  com- 
pensations for  the  losses  to  which  they  were  subjected. 
They  were  not  at  once  to  be  deprived,  but  to  hold 
their  sees  with  diminished  revenues  and  with  increased 
amenability  to  the  Government  and  the  civil  law;  but 
in  the  mean  time  they  were  exhorted  and  encouraged 
to  come  into  harmony  with  the  new  system,  and  to 
carry  it  out  in  their  dioceses;  and  by  this  means  it 
was  hoped  that  some  of  them  would  from  conviction 
adopt  the  system  upon  which  the  Reformation  was 
founded.  The  policy  was  not  unlike  that  by  which 
James  II.  sought  to  bring  back  the  bishops  of  the 
Church  of  England  to  the  Church  of  Rome. 

The  question  of  the  Episcopal  succession,  to  which 
so  much  importance  has  been  attached  in  modern 
controversy,  seems  to  have  been  scarcely  mooted. 
The  native  historians  do  not  allude  to  it  as  a  vital 
question.  The  old  sees,  with  vastly  diminished  rev- 
enues and  privileges,  were  retained,  and  it  seems  to  have 
been  by  a  natural  and  unforced  train  of  circumstances, 
rather  than  by  a  careful  design  and  arrangement,  that 
the  Episcopal  succession  was  preserved.  It  is  evident 
from  the  subsequent  proceedings  of  Gustavus,  as  we 
shall  see,  that  he  attached  no  special  importance  to 
the  preservation  of  the  unbroken  Episcopal  succession, 


The  Reformation  in  Sweden.  103 

and  that  he  would  have  been  satisfied  that  the  Epis- 
copal sees,  as  in  Denmark,  should  have  been  filled  by 
those  who  had  only  the  ordination  of  presbyters;  and 
who,  while  they  bore  the  name  of  bishops,  should  in 
fact  have  no  higher  functions  and  jurisdiction  than  the 
superintendents  of  the  Lutheran  Church  in  Germany. 
It  is  only  in  a  brief  foot-note  that  the  great  national 
historian,  Geijer,  mentions  the  method  in  which  the  suc- 
cession was  secured.  In  enumerating  the  four  bishops 
that  were  in  the  Diet  of  Westeras,  he  names  them  thus: 
"There  were  present  four  Bishops,  viz.:  Brask,  of  Lin- 
koping;  Magnus  Harolson,  of  Skara;  Magnus  Sommer, 
of  Strengness,  and  Peter  Magnusen,  of  Westeras, — the 
latter  being  the  only  one  besides  Brask  who  had  re- 
ceived his  consecration,  which  was  performed  at  Rome. 
At  the  king's  special  request,  after  Peter  Sunanvader 
had  been  deposed,  this  Peter  Magnusen  afterwards 
consecrated  the  bishops  appointed  by  the  king"  It  was 
by  the  consecration  of  this  single  bishop  that  the  suc- 
cession has  been  preserved  in  Sweden. 

If,  therefore,  one  deems  the  unbroken  Episcopal  suc- 
cession necessary  to  the  existence  of  a  valid  ministry, 
and  to  the  intercommunion  of  the  Episcopal  Church 
with  other  churches,  he  will  undoubtedly  find  that  it 
has  been  preserved  in  the  Church  of  Sweden.  This  has 
been  conclusively  proved  by  Dr.  A.  Nicholson,  of  Leam- 
ington, for  several  years  English  Consular  Chaplain  at 
Gothenburg.  He  recently  returned  to  Sweden,  and  in- 
vestigated the  question  anew,  and  has  produced  proofs 
which  are  indisputable,  that  the  succession  has  been 
preserved  in  the  Church  of  Sweden.  He  concludes  his 
documentary  and  complete  evidence  in  these  words: 
"  Those  who  doubt  the  Apostolic  succession  of  the 
bishops  of  the  Church  of  Sweden  ignore  facts,  and  con- 


104  The  Reformation  in  Sweden. 

found  that  Church  with  the  Danish  and  Norwegian 
bodies.  Hence  arise  their  prejudices  upon  the  subject, 
which  are  not  more  reasonable  than  the  Roman  sus- 
picion that  Barlow  and  Parker  were  English  laymen, 
and  are  not  less  fanciful,  let  me  add,  than  the  corre- 
sponding prejudice  existing  to-day  in  the  mind  of  the 
Swedish  High  Churchman  against  the  English,  as  one 
of  those  sects  which  owe  their  rise  to  the  accidents  of 
the  Reformation,  and  their  doctrines  on  the  Holy  Sac- 
raments and  on  Grace  to  Zwinglius  ancl  Calvin"  (p. 
57).  Thus  Dr.  Nicholson,  while  graciously  admitting 
that  the  Swedish  Church  possesses  the  succession,  and 
may  therefore  be  acknowledged  by  the  Anglican 
Church,  receives  in  return  from  Swedish  Churchmen 
the  contemptuous  statement  that  his  own  Church  is  a 
mere  sect,  the  creature  of  an  accident,  and  unsound  in 
the  faith  on  fundamental  points! 
r         ,-       The  coronation  of  Gustavus  took  place   at 

L-oronation  r 

of  Gustavus  Upsala,  in  February,  1529.  It  was  observed 
Tcutlon  of  on  tnat  occasi°n  that  contrary  to  the  usual 
the  Pre-  custom  no  one  bore  the  crown.  It  stood 
upon  the  high  altar,  and  Gustavus  was  be 
lieved  to  intimate  thereby  that  he  received  it  direct 
from  heaven.  As  the  Dalesmen  continued  refractory, 
and  kept  up  correspondence  with  the  pretended  Sture 
in  Norway,  Gustavus  marched  an  army  of  14,000  men 
into  the  Dale  district,  and  assembled  a  large  number 
of  the  people  at  what  was  called  the  Assize  of  Tuna,  and 
demanded  that  the  chief  supporters  of  the  Daleyunker, 
as  the  Pretender  was  called,  and  especially  those  who 
constituted  his  council,  should  be  surrendered  to  him. 
Resistance  was  impossible,  and  a  large  number  of  those 
most  active  in  the  support  of  the  Yunker  were,  after  a 
short  trial,  executed.     The  surrender  of  the  false  Sture 


The  Reformation  in  Sweden.  105 

was  demanded  from  the  Archbishop  of  Drontheim,  but 
evaded  by  sending  him  disguised  to  Rostock;  but  he 
was  discovered  in  that  city  by  the  agents  of  the  king, 
and  tried  and  executed  for  treason.  It  was  a  severe 
proceeding,  but  probably  not  more  so  than  the  emer- 
gency demanded. 

r     ,  The  time  was  now  ripe  for  an  open  acknowl- 

ism  in  the  edgment  and  support  of  the  Protestant  iaitn 
Ascendant.  by  the  \^ngm  The  most  powerful  supporters 
of  the  old  system  had  abandoned  the  field.  Most  of  the 
clergy  avowed  their  acquiescence  in  the  Protestant 
faith,  and  retained  their  parishes.  The  king  declared 
himself  a  Lutheran.  He  appointed  Olaus  Petri  Pastor 
of  the  Church  at  Stockholm,  and  his  brother  Laurentius 
Petri  was  subsequently,  1531,  elected  Archbishop  of 
Upsala.  The  flight  of  Bishop  Magnus  and  Bishop  Brask 
greatly  forwarded  the  progress  of  the  Reformation. 
The  consecration  of  three  new  Bishops  by  Bishop  Mag- 
nus enabled  him  to  be  consecrated  by  them  without 
taking  the  old  form  of  the  oath  to  protect  the  holy 
Church.  At  that  coronation  it  was  observed  also,  as 
a  significant  sign,  that  he  did  not,  according  to  the  old 
formula,  receive  the  crown  from  the  hand  of  the  arch- 
bishop, but  left  it  lying  upon  the  altar,  in  token  of  his 
acceptance  of  it  directly  from  God.  And  the  sermon 
of  Olaus  Petri  on  that  occasion  was  plainly  and  em- 
phatically Protestant.  From  that  time  the  indefat- 
igable Olaus  Petri,  the  polemic  and  the  doctrinal  leader 
of  the  Reformation,  published  within  a  year  no  less 
than  nine  treatises  on  the  points  at  issue  between  Lu- 
theranism  and  Romanism.  They  covered  the  whole 
ground  of  the  reformed  theology.  In  this  work  he  was 
powerfully  aided  by  Lars  Anderson,  Archdeacon  of  Up- 
sala, whose  shaping  and  systematizing  mind  brought 


106  The  Reformation  in  Sweden. 

the  new  doctrines  into  a  coherent  order.  They  were 
the  Luther  and  Melancthon  of  the  Swedish  Reforma- 
tion, and  the  coming  Diet  of  Orebo  was  their  Diet  of 
Augsburg-,  and  its  Decrees  their  Confession. 
Moderation  ^ut  though  the  king  and  his  two  principal 
of  the  Re-  spiritual  aids  and  advisers  were  thoroughly 
formers.  Protestant  Reformers,  they  were  not  icon- 
oclasts and  radicals.  While  they  established  a  doc- 
trinal reform  and  rejected  the  false  and  deadly  dogmas 
of  the  Papacy,  and  swept  away  with  a  strong  hand  the 
practical  corruptions  and  superstitions  of  the  Church  of 
Rome,  they  prudently  allowed  some  points  of  ritual 
and  ceremonial  to  remain,  especially  in  the  cathedral 
churches,  in  order  that  there  might  be  less  shocks  to 
the  minds  of  the  weaker  Reformers,  and  of  the  com- 
mon people.  We  find,  for  instance,  that  in  the  cathe- 
dral of  Linkoping  "  six  prelates  and  canons  should  re- 
main in  the  cathedral  with  the  best  prebends,  and  keep 
ten  priests  to  bear  crosses,  the  bishop  two,  the  provost 
two,  the  archdeacons  two,  the  four  canons  each  one. 
In  the  cathedral  of  Wexio  arrangements  were  made 
that  there  should  be  four  canons  with  the  best  prebends 
and  six  cross-bearing  priests  and  a  school."  (Anjou, 
p.  230.)  These  were  specimens  of  what  was  still  al- 
lowed to  remain  of  the  great  staff  of  ecclesiastics  and 
officials  that  had  before  thronged  the  cathedrals.  More- 
over the  principal  festivals  commemorative  of  the  life 
and  death  of  the  Saviour  were  retained,  and  rich  vest- 
ments were  worn  in  the  administration  of  the  Lord's 
Supper,  and  the  cross  was  still  borne  in  processionals, 
and  in  some  cases  the  crucifix  was  not  removed  from 
the  Holy  Table* 

*  It  is  a  curious  anomaly  in  a  church  which  exalts  so  highly  the  doctrine 
of  the  Lord's  Supper,  and  clothes  its  priests  in  gorgeous  garments  in  its  admin- 


The  Reformation  in  Sweden.  107 

It  is  another  notable  evidence  of  the  moderation  of 
the  Swedish  Reformation  that  it  not  only  did  not  pro- 
scribe and  disfranchise  the  Roman  Church,  and  subject  its 
priests  as  such  to  penalties  and  punishments,  but  that  it 
endeavored  to  bring  over  the  bishops  and  priests  to  an 
acceptance  of  the  new  faith  by  a  system  of  instruction 
and  influence  and  rewards.  The  bishops  were  not  at 
once  to  be  dispossessed,  but  to  hold  their  sees  with  di- 
minished revenues  and  privileges,  and  with  increased 
amenability  to  the  government  and  civil  law;  but  in  the 
meantime  they  were  exhorted  to  come  into  harmony 
with  the  new  system  and  to  work  it  out  in  their  dioceses; 
and  by  this  means  it  was  hoped  that  some  of  them 
would  ultimately  from  conviction  adopt  the  principles 
upon  which  the  Reformation  was  founded.  The  policy 
was  not  unlike  that  by  which  James  II.  sought  to  bring 
back  the  prelates  of  the  Church  of  England  to  the  Church 
of  Rome.  The  policy  of  Gustavus  succeeded  partially 
among  the  lower  clergy,  but  failed  almost  wholly  to 
bring  over  the  dignitaries  of  the  Church. 

Although  the  monasteries  became  the  property  of 
the  crown,  and  the  king  immediately  dissolved  most 
of  them,  yet  even  here  there  was  the  same  moderation 
displayed  as  in  the  matter  of  ritual  and  ceremonial. 
They  were  not  all  at  once  swept  out  of  existence,  in 

istration,  that  it  leavesits  chancels  or  sanctuaries  unadorned,  and  in  some  cases 
in  a  condition  of  shameful  untidiness  and  neglect.  The  author  observed 
this  to  be  the  case  in  all  the  churches — not  many  it  is  true — which  he  saw  in  a 
recent  tour  through  Sweden.  He  was  amazed  to  find  that  the  great  Cathe- 
dral of  Upsala,  the  Metropolitan  Cathedral,  and  the  greatest  in  the  kingdom, 
contained  a  very  small  chancel,  constructed  of  plain  pine  wood,  much  worn, 
with  appointments  which  were  absolutely  shabby,  and  the  whole  wearing 
an  aspect  of  great  neglect.  I  venture  to  say  that  there  is  not  in  all  the  churches 
which  I  have  seen  in  the  city  of  Philadelphia,  one  chancel  that  is  not  superior 
in  its  appointments,  and  more  reverently  cared  for,  than  that  of  the  grand 
Cathedral  of  Upsala. 


108  The  Reformation  in  Sweden. 

cruel  disregard  of  helpless  and  blameless  inmates. 
Some  few  cloisters  remained  after  the  death  of  Gusta- 
vus.  That  of  Sko  was  standing  in  1556,  and  those  of 
Wadstena  and  Nadendal  in  1595.  Many  of  them  were 
converted  into  hospitals  and  some  into  schools  for  the 
education  of  youths. 

The  Synod  The  Synod  of  Orebo  was  opened  on  the  2d 
of  Orebo.  0f  February,  1529.  As  the  Archiepiscopal 
See  of  Upsala  was  not  yet  filled,  it  was  represented  by 
Lars  Anderson,  who  was  appointed  President.  The 
assembly  was  thus  constituted  as  a  National  Synod. 
Besides  the  three  bishops — neither  of  whom  was  cor- 
dially in  favor  of  the  Reformation — there  were  nineteen 
canons,  eleven  rectors  of  the  larger  churches,  eight 
monks  and  many  of  the  parochial  clergy.  No  record 
of  the  preceedings  and  debates  of  the  council,  with  the 
exception  of  the  decree  which  it  passed,  remains.  If 
its  members  were  not  overawed  by  the  knowledge  that 
the  eye  of  the  king  was  on  them,  the  debates  in  an  as- 
sembly so  composed  must  have  been  earnest,  if  not 
stormy.  But,  whatever  might  have  been  the  secret 
opinions  of  some  of  its  members,  the  decree  included 
but  little  that  was  not  distinctly  Protestant.  It  may  be 
divided  into  three  heads,  (1)  preaching,  (2)  discipline, 
(3)  church  usages  and  ceremonies.  The  principal  pro- 
visions, were  these:  Better  provision  shall  be  made  for 
the  preaching  of  the  Gospel  over  the  realm.  The  bish- 
ops were  enjoined  to  preach,  and  to  secure  well  instructed 
preachers,  under  the  penalty  of  losing  their  benefices. 
One  lesson  at  least  from  the  Scriptures,  with  a  good  and 
sound  exposition  was  ordered  to  be  read  daily  in  the  ca- 
thedrals and  public  schools.  The  lectures  of  the  schools 
should  be  so  arranged  that  the  choristers  should  have 
an  opportunity  of  attending  them.     Learned  preachers 


The  Reformation  in  Sweden.  109 

were  to  be  appointed  in  towns,  to  whom  all  rural  preachers 
misrht  resort  for  instruction.  Afternoon  lectures  were 
to  be  delivered  in  the  monasteries.  Sermons  were  to 
be  begun  and  ended  with  prayer.  At  every  preaching, 
the  Creed,  the  Lord's  Prayer  and  the  Ave  Maria  (which 
it  was  not  thought  prudent  yet  to  set  aside)  were  to  be 
repeated;  the  ten  commandments  also  were  to  be  read 
twice  a  month. 

In  the  matter  of  discipline  the  Penitentiaries  were 
strictly  enjoined  to  use  more  sharpness  with  manslay- 
ers  and  other  criminals.  As  the  frequent  Holy  Days 
gave  much  occasion  to  rioting  and  sin,  it  was  ordered 
that  our  Lord's  own  festivals,  the  Virgin's,  the  Apos- 
tles' and  those  of  the  national  patron  saints  should  be 
retained,  and  the  rest  abolished.  Scholars  were  for- 
bidden to  go  from  parish  to  parish  to  collect  alms,  as 
the  custom  gave  rise  to  many  abuses.  Marriage  of  the 
priests  was  allowed.  The  Penitentiaries  of  the  cathe- 
drals were  empowered  to  use  such  severity  in  their 
dealings  with  murderers  as  they  should  see  fit,  and 
this  exceptional  power  to  inflict  civil  penalties  for 
crimes  was  placed  on  the  singular  ground  that  "the 
worldly  sword  appears  to  be  idle,  and  has  not  the 
force  that  it  ought  to  have."  Each  bishop  may  limit 
the  number  of  saints'  days  as  he  shall  judge  to  be 
most  for  edification. 

In  the  explanation  of  church  ceremonies,  there  is 
an  effort  made  to  show  their  true  and  salutary  use  and 
meaning  as  distinguished  from  the  superstitions  which 
had  gathered  about  them  in  the  public  mind.  Consecra- 
ted water  cannot  take  away  sin,  for  that  is  effected  only 
by  the  blood  of  Christ.  Images  are  not  for  worship,  but 
only  for  bringing  Christ  and  the  saints  into  remem- 
brance.    Candlemas  lights  have  no  enlightening  power 


no  The  Reformation  in  Sweden. 

for  the  mind,  but  are  only  symbols  of  the  true  light  of 
the  world,  Christ  Jesus.  Chrism  does  not  convey,  but 
is  only  a  sign  of  the  Holy  Ghost.  The  ringing  of  bells 
has  no  power  over  evil  spirits,  but  is  of  use  only  in 
calling  the  people  to  Church.  "Church  structures  are 
kept  up,  not  for  any  peculiar  sanctity  in  themselves, 
for  the  worship  of  God,  but  that  men  may  meet  to- 
gether there  and  learn  God's  Word."  "  Fast  days  are 
kept,  not  as  special  worship  done  to  God,  but  to  tame 
our  lustful  bodies."  Explanations  similar  to  these  con- 
cerning saints'  days  and  pilgrimages  follow.  Such  was 
the  system  on  which  the  Reformation  was  established 
in  Sweden,  and  such  substantially  it  continued  under 
manifold  difficulties,  which  hindered  its  complete  as- 
cendency, during  the  whole  reign  of  King  Gustavus. 
Insurrec-  ^  was  mevitable  that  such  great  changes, 
turns  and  however  skillfully  prepared  for  and  gradu- 
Commotions.   ally  introduced)   would    awaken    opposition 

and  lead  to  popular  commotions  and  revolts.  A  large 
part  of  the  reign  of  Gustavus  was  occupied  in  struggling 
against  insurrections.  They  were  caused  partly  by  dis- 
satisfaction with  the  king's  ecclesiastical  reforms,  and 
partly  by  the  heavy  taxation  which  he  was  compelled 
to  impose.  An  insurrection  was  attempted  to  be  or- 
ganized by  the  High  Steward,  Thure  Johnson.  He 
gathered  a  number  of  the  leading  men  of  West  Goth- 
land, and  urged  them  to  depose  the  king  who  had 
forsaken  the  Christian  religion,  persecuted  the  Church, 
and  usurped  the  throne  which  belonged  of  right  to 
the  house  of  Sture.  But  the  appeal  was  unsuccessful. 
Johnson  was  compelled  to  flee,  after  having  committed 
some  overt  acts  of  rebellion,  by  which  his  life  would 
have  been  forfeited.  Gustavus  issued  a  decree  of  ob- 
livion for  all  who  had  been  implicated  in  this  attempt 


The  Reformation  in  Sweden.  hi 

— except  two  prominent  and  leading  lords.  He  thus, 
according  to  his  usual  policy,  so  blended  mercy  with 
severity  that  the  dissatisfied  might  be  intimidated,  and 
the  forgiven  be  led  by  gratitude  or  fear  to  become  loyal 
or  quiet  in  the  future. 

£>iei  0f  At  the  Diet  which  was  summoned  in  conse- 
Strengness.  quence  of  this  insurrection  Gustavus  repelled 
the  charges  which  were  made  by  Johnson  the  pretext 
for  rebellion.  To  the  charge  of  fostering  heresy  he 
answered  that  it  was  not  he  but  the  Lord  who  had 
commanded  the  pure  preaching  of  the  Gospel.  As  to 
other  points  of  doctrine  he  was  content  that  learned 
men  should  meet  and  adjust  them.  He  denied  that 
he  had  broken  his  oath  to  preserve  the  privileges  of 
the  Church,  for  it  had  been  decided  at  Westeras  what 
those  privileges  were,  and  those,  thus  authoritatively 
defined,  he  had  preserved.  The  old  oath  of  subjection 
to  the  Pope  and  his  agents  he  had  indeed  declined  to 
take;  and  when  he  pledged  himself  to  protect  the 
Church  he  understood,  and  none  better  than  Thure 
Johnson  knew  that  he  understood,  that  he  took  upon 
himself  the  obligation,  "to  protect  and  uphold  the 
Church  and  Churchmen,  that  is  to  say  his  Christian 
subjects,  since  the  Holy  Church  is  no  other  than  the 
congregation  of  Christian  men  and  women.  Did  any 
one  interpret  his  oath  as  confined  to  bishops,  prelates 
and  priests?  then  let  him  remember  that  the  diminu- 
tion of  their  power  was  affected  by  the  council  and 
estates  of  the  kingdom."  The  appropriation  of  con- 
vents to  the  establishment  of  hospitals  and  schools 
and  to  the  urgent  necessities  of  the  Government,  had 
proved  an  equal  advantage  to  both  the  Church  and 
State.  It  is  true  that  he  had  taken  many  valuables 
from  the  convents  when  they  became  empty,  but  he 


ii2  The  Reformation  in  Sweden. 

had  used  them  partly  for  the  aid  of  the  Government, 
and  partly  to  maintain  students  in  theology,  that  there 
might  be  a  supply  of  persons  qualified  to  teach  and  to 
preach  throughout  the  kingdom.  The  Swedish  Mass 
he  had  not  forbidden,  and  the  Latin  Mass  he  had  al- 
lowed to  be  used  only  in  part  with  the  Swedish;  be- 
cause it  was  more  edifying  for  the  people  to  hear  and 
use  language  which  they  understood  than  to  hear  and 
repeat  by  rote  an  unknown  tongue. 

We  get  an  insight  into  the  deplorable  previous  con- 
dition of  Sweden,  and  the  overshadowing  and  blighting 
influence  of  the  Church,  from  the  further  explanations 
of  Gustavus  in  reference  to  the  decrees  of  Westeras, 
which  had  been  adduced  as  one  of  the  great  moving 
causes  of  the  rebellion.  The  king  explained  fully  the 
reasons  which  had  led  to  their  enactment.  They  had 
found  that  the  worldly  engagements  of  the  bishops  in- 
terfered with  their  duty  as  preachers  of  God's  Word; 
their  power  and  their  strongholds  with  the  king's  rights, 
and  the  administration  of  justice;  and  were  besides  in- 
consistent with  our  Saviour's  commands  that  His  min- 
isters should  not  be  temporal  princes.  They  had  found 
that  the  estates  and  tenants  of  the  convents  were  grossly 
neglected;  that  the  monks  in  each  had  diminished  from 
forty  or  fifty  or  sixty,  to  five  or  six;  and  that  owing  to 
their  ample  provision  they  were  leading  luxurious  lives. 
Moreover  they  believed  that  God  would  be  better  wor- 
shiped by  more  preaching  and  less  singing  and  reading; 
and  that  monasteries  and  cathedrals  with  a  large  staff 
of  clergy  were  not  necessary  to  the  right  performance 
of  divine  service.  It  also  appeared  from  the  old  registers 
that  where  there  had  formerly  been  a  hundred  nobles, 
there  were  now  only  three  or  four;  the  nobles  had  been 
induced  through  superstition,  or  when  hard  pressed  for 


The  Reformation  in  Sweden.  113 

money,  to  mortgage  their  estates  to  monasteries;  and 
hence  their  descendants  became  peasants,  and  almost 
all  the  revenues  of  the  country  were  in  the  hands  of  the 
clergy,  who  gave  no  personal  service  to  the  crown ;  and 
the  kingdom  was  deprived  of  those  men  of  high  birth 
and  large  wealth  who  constituted  the  ornament  and 
support  of  the  throne. 

Third  Re  ^e  third  and  last  revolt  of  the  Dalesmen 
volt  of  the  was  brought  about  by  a  cause  which  touched 
a  esmen.  ^e  sentiments  and  feelings  no  less  than  the 
pockets  of  the  sturdy  and  pugnacious  malcontents.  It 
seems  that  up  to  the  year  1529  the  debt  due  to  Lubeck 
had  not  been  paid,  although  imposts  had  been  laid  for 
the  specific  purpose  of  discharging  it.  In  that  year  it 
became  no  longer  possible  to  evade  the  payment.  The 
Lubeckers  threatened  to  detain  Swedish  ships  as  se- 
curity for  the  debt.  Accordingly  at  Orebo,  in  1 531,  it 
was  agreed  that,  in  addition  to  the  appropriation  for  a 
time  of  the  tithes  for  that  purpose,  the  superfluous  bells 
of  the  town  and  country  parishes  should  be  given  up  or 
redeemed. 

These  decrees  produced  everywhere,  and  especially 
in  the  Dales,  the  most  intense  dissatisfaction.  The 
removal  of  the  most  valuable  bells  in  a  chime  changed 
old  familiar  melodies  into  a  painful  jangle,  and  broke 
up  many  sacred  associations  which  were  dearer  to  the 
people  than  they  knew  before  they  were  destroyed. 
The  Swedes  always  have  been  and  still  are  very  fond 
of  church  bells;  and  in  many  small  villages  in  Sweden 
the  tourist  will  often  be  surprised  at  the  fine  tone  and 
sweet  chimes  of  bells-  in  poor  and  plain  churches.  The 
bells,  moreover,  had  acquired  something  of  a  sacred 
character  by  having  been  christened  and  anointed. 
The  removal  of  them  caused  another  revolt  in  Dale- 


ii4  The  Reformation  in  Sweden. 

carlia,  which  was  put  down  with  no  little  difficulty. 
The  futile  attempts  to  adjust  this  difficulty  need  not 
be  described.  The  process  of  calling  a  conference,  and 
surrounding  it  with  soldiers,  of  arresting  and  executing 
the  leaders  of  the  revolt,  and  the  renewal  of  pledges 
of  obedience,  were  all  again  repeated.  This  was  the 
last  commotion  which  had  any  connection  with  ecclesi- 
astical affairs  for  a  number  of  years  succeeding.  The 
Dalesmen  learned  at  length  that  they  had  to  do  with 
a  king  who  would  not  surrender  his  prerogatives;  who 
would  deal  sternly  and  even  unjustly  with  his  subjects 
when  the  safety  of  the  State  or  of  his  throne  was  in 
question;  whose  prudence  defeated  all  their  schemes, 
and  whose  severity  punished  every  outrage. 
Provision  The  most  important  portion  of  the  decree 
for  Preach-  0f  Orebo  was  that  which  enjoined  that  pro- 
Church  Ser-  vision  should  be  made  by  the  bishops  for 
vices.  the  preaching  of  the  Gospel.     But  Gustavus 

did  not  leave  the  execution  of  the  decree  to  those  who 
he  well  knew  would  not  cordially  enforce  it!  He  sent 
one  or  two  learned  and  able  preachers  to  each  diocese, 
to  preach  in  the  cathedrals,  and  to  establish  cathedral 
schools  for  the  training  of  a  preaching  ministry.  The 
indefatigable  Olaus  Petri  prepared  postils — correspond- 
ing to  the  English  book  of  homilies — for  the  people, 
to  be  read  by  those  priests  who  were  incompetent  to 
prepare  suitable  sermons  of  their  own.  He  also  pro- 
vided a  church  manual  in  the  Swedish  tongue.  This 
was  not  published  by  the  authority  of  any  church 
synod,  but  it  came  into  general  use.  In  this  there 
were  offices  for  the  sick,  for  baptism,  marriage  and 
burial,  as  well  as  for  the  performance  of  the  public 
services.  Two  years  later,  when  the  introduction  of 
the  Mass  in  the  Swedish  tongue  was  complained  of  by 


The  Reformation  in  Sweden.  115 

the  Dalesmen,  Olaus  published  a  work  in  which  he 
showed  the  propriety  of  this  arrangement;  and  at  the 
same  time  the  office  for  the  Swedish  Mass,  as  it  is  still 
used  in  Sweden,  was  prepared  by  him.  It  has  been 
noticed  that  no  direction  for  preaching  is  given,  and 
no  place  assigned  for  it,  in.  the  first  four  editions  of  this 
book.  But  the  use  of  the  book  soon  extended  through 
the  kingdom,  and  the  point  in  the  service  where  the 
preaching  should  take  place  was  designated  in  1548. 
The  necessity  for  this  movement  and  its  gradual  in- 
fluence are  thus  described  by  the  Swedish  historian, 
Anjou: 

''Of  the  success  of  a  work  so  important  to  the  Ref- 
ormation, by  acquainting  the  people  with  the  Gospel 
and  its  meaning,  by  introducing  true  evangelical  free- 
dom through  a  true  faith  in  the  Son,  who  makes  us 
truly  free,  we  cannot  expect  to  procure  information 
from  times  yet  unable  to  prepare  workmen  to  culti- 
vate the  field  of  the  church.  The  preaching  of  God's 
Word,  the  purifying  of  divine  service  from  superstitions 
and  strange  practices,  and  from  a  language  not  under- 
stood, together  with  the  reclaiming  of  the  ecclesiastical 
constitution  from  being  a  hindrance  to  being  a  means 
of  furthering  the  kingdom  of  God,  were  important  steps, 
and  the  commencement  of  a  holy  progress  to  a  holy 
end." 

The  Metropolitan  See  of  Upsala  had  been 
Petri  Elect,  vacant  for  ten  years.  1  his  omission  to  nil 
edArchbisk-  the  most  important  see  in  Sweden  probably 
°p'  arose,   partly  from   the   fact   that   the   king 

could  draw  from  it  while  vacant  a  large  revenue,  and 
partly  from  his  manifestly  increasing  indifference,  if, 
not  repugnance,  to  the  Episcopal  constitution  of  the 
Church.     Lars  Anderson,  his  chancellor,  often  remon- 


n6  The  Reformation  in  Sweden. 

strated  with  Gustavus  at  this  delay;  and  this  was  the 
beginning  and  the  cause  of  the  alienation  between 
them.  But  so  great  had  the  dissatisfaction  of  the 
country  become,  in  consequence  of  this  long  delay, 
and  the  evils  which  it  involved,  that  the  king  was 
compelled  to  take  measures  in  1530  for  filling  the  see. 
The  Bishop  of  Abo,  Jno  Skyette,  was  elected,  but 
declined.  Bishop  Sven,  of  Skara,  was  elected  by  the 
Chapter  of  Upsala,  and  he  also  declined.  In  the  spring 
of  1 53 1  the  king  summoned  an  assembly  of  the  bishops 
and  the  chief  clergy  of  the  kingdom  to  Stockholm,  to 
elect  an  archbishop.  Laurentius  Petri  was  elected 
by  a  large  majority.  It  is  mentioned  as  an  indica- 
tion of  the  predominant  Protestant  sentiment  of  the 
body,  that  one  hundred  and  fifty  votes  out  of  one  hun- 
dred and  seventy-one  were  cast  for  the  well-known 
uncompromising  champion  of  the  Reformation,  while 
only  seven  of  the  remaining  twenty-one  votes  were 
cast  for  candidates  who  were  regarded  as  lukewarm 
towards  the  new  or  secretly  devoted  to  the  old  system. 
The  new  archbishop  was  but  thirty-two  years  of  age. 
For  forty  years  he  administered  the  see  with  wisdom 
and  gentleness,  and  with  an  unswerving  adherence  to 
his  Protestant  principles  in  the  midst  of  difficulties 
which  arose  on  the  one  hand  from  the  encroachments 
of  the  king  on  his  prerogatives,  and  on  the  other  from 
the  pressure  of  those  who  desired  to  push  the  Refor- 
mation further  forward. 

Changes  in  After  tne  flight  of  Bishop  Brask  the  See  of 
the  other  Linkoping  was  committed  to  Bishop  Jons. 
After  Bishop  Magnus,  of  Skara,  had  aban- 
doned his  diocese  it  was  placed  under  the  care  of  its 
provost-master,  Sven,  who  was  subsequently  elected 
bishop  of  the  see.     These  proceedings  were  a  practical 


The  Reformation  in  Sweden.  117 

proclamation  of  independence  of  the  Pope,  who,  as 
Bishops  Brask  and  Magnus  had  not  resigned  their  sees, 
still  regarded  them  as  their  rightful  incumbents.  In 
1530  Jons  Bethius,  Canon  ofWexio,  became  its  Bishop, 
on  the  death  of  Bishop  Ingemar.  Magnus  Sommer,  of 
Strengness,  and  Petrus  Magni,  of  Westeras,  were  all 
that  were  now  left  of  the  bishops  who  had  approved  or 
acquiesced  in  the  decrees  of  Westeras.  But  when  they 
were  led  to  hope  that,  by  the  aid  of  Charles  V.,  Chris- 
tian II.  might  recover  his  three  thrones,  they  circulated 
treasonable  appeals  to  the  people  from  the  exiled  Arch- 
bishop Trolle  and  Bishop  Magnus,  of  Skara.  The  king 
had  summoned  the  three  bishops  elect  to  appear  at 
Stockholm  for  their  consecration  and  his  own  nuptials. 
He  had  also  summoned  the  Bishops  of  Strengness  and 
Westeras  to  officiate  at  the  consecration  of  the  arch- 
bishop and  the  three  bishops  elect.  Their  conduct  on 
this  occasion  shows  that  they  were  not  the  stuff  of 
which  martyrs  are  made.  Just  before  their  journey 
to  Stockholm  they  prepared  a  protestation,  in  which 
they  declared  their  abhorrence  of  the  soul-destroying 
heresy  of  Luther,  and  of  the  consecration  of  the  intruded 
bishops  and  archbishop,  which  they  were  compelled 
unwillingly  to  perform  "  under  the  influence  of  appre- 
hensions and  fears  which  may  well  arise  even  in  firm 
minds."  This  cowardly  document  was  not  to  be  made 
public  unless  a  change  of  dynasty  should  make  it  nec- 
essary as  a  matter  of  self-defense.  Whether  the  king 
knew  of  its  existence  is  doubtful;  but  he  was  quite  well 
aware  of  the  secret  disloyalty  of  both  these  prelates. 
Bishop  Petrus  retained  his  office  until  his  death  in  1534, 
and  was  succeeded  the  year  after  by  Herrick  Johannes, 
who  became  an  ardent  Reformer.  Bishop  Sommer  was 
imprisoned  by  the  king  in  1536,  was  released  after  eight 


n8  The  Reformation  in  Sweden. 

months,  but  not  again  restored  to  his  see.  He  ended 
his  days  in  the  cloister  of  Krokek  as  an  avowed  member 
of  the  Church  of  Rome,  and  in  the  undisturbed  enjoy- 
ment of  its  faith,  in  the  year  1543.  Thus  as  early  as 
1531  the  Swedish  Church  was  completely  established 
in  independence  of  the  Church  of  Rome.  All  of  its 
bishops  professed,  and  all  but  two  sincerely  embraced, 
and  earnestly  propagated,  the  Protestant  faith.  But 
as  yet  its  rules  of  discipline  were  uncertain,  and  the 
power  of  the  king  in  ecclesiastical  questions  was  prac- 
tically supreme. 


CHAPTER    VI. 

CONDITION   OF   THE   CHURCH   TO  THE  CLOSE  OF  THE 
REIGN   OF   KING   GUSTAVUS. 

DURING  the  five  years  between  1531  and 
1536  Gustavus  seems  to  have  consoli- 
Life  of  the  dated  his  power,  and  to  have  had  some  pros- 
pect of  the  peaceful  reign  for  which  he  longed, 
and  which  he  was  never  to  enjoy.  He  had  foiled  the 
Lubeckers  in  their  attempt  to  reinstate  Christian.  That 
tyrant  was  defeated  and  imprisoned,  and  no  more  danger 
was  to  be  feared  from  him.  The  turbulent  Dalesmen  were 
thoroughly  humbled  and  subdued,  and  would  hence- 
forth give  him  no  further  trouble.  An  heir  was  born 
to  him,  and  thus  the  power  to  agitate  the  country  with 
intrigues  for  the  succession  was  much  diminished.  But 
in  that  moment  of  the  seeming  greatest  security  he  was 
in  fact  in  the  greatest  peril.  A  plot  against  his  life, 
concocted  by  demagogues  in  Lubeck,  in  connection  with 
some  German  burghers  of  Stockholm,  which  had  re- 
mained passive  while  the  result  of  the  war  was  uncertain, 
was  after  its  conclusion  revived  and  ripened.  The  con- 
spirators prepared  a  number  of  schemes  for  the  murder 
of  the  king,  to  be  employed  in  turn  if  it  should  prove  to 
be  necessary.  First,  a  barrel  of  gunpowder  furnished 
with  a  fuse,  capable  of  burning  three  hours,  was  to  be 
placed  under  his  seat  in  the  high  church,  and  to  be 


120  The  Reformation  in  Sweden. 

exploded  during  the  divine  service.  Should  this  fail, 
Anders  Hanson,  the  king's  master  of  the  mint,  who 
had  married  a  sister  of  Bishop  Brask,  was  to  stab  him 
in  the  Treasury  of  Stockholm  Castle.  If  this  scheme 
should  fail,  he  was  to  be  taken  off  by  poison.  The 
loyal  inhabitants  of  Stockholm  were  then  to  be  mur- 
dered, and  the  city  to  be  included  in  the  Hanseatic 
League.  On  the  day  before  that  appointed  for  the 
execution  of  the  plot,  a  drunken  sailor,  made  desperate 
by  need,  was  engaged  to  fire  the  train.  Returning 
home  intoxicated  from  a  carouse  with  those  by  whom 
he  was  employed,  he  revealed  to  a  neighbor  and  his 
wife  what  was  to  take  place  on  the  following  day.  The 
latter  immediately  sent  word  to  the  commandant  of 
Stockholm,  and  before  morning  all  the  conspirators 
were  secured  and  most  of  them  executed. 
The  Atti-  It  is  evident  that  Gustavus  came  very  little 
tudeofGns-  under  the  influence  of  the  clergy,  and  that 
■wards  the  he  regarded  them  generally  with  dislike,  and 
Clergy.  was  inclineci  to  treat  them  with  severity  when 

they  exhibited  a  grasping  spirit  or  intrigued  against 
him.  Yet  he  did  not  fail  to  do  justice  and  to  render 
honor  to  those  who  were  faithful  and  godly  men;  and 
he  himself  was  beyond  doubt,  from  full  conviction  a 
sincere  believer.  We  can  scarcely  wonder  that  such 
should  have  been  his  feeling,  especially  towards  the 
bishops  and  the  higher  clergy,  to  whom  all  the  evils 
and  burdens  of  the  country  were  due,  and  by  whom  all 
the  rebellions  that  had  arisen  either  originated  or  had 
been  fostered,  and  from  many  of  whom  he  had  received 
only  gross  treachery  and  ingratitude  in  return  for  the 
favors  he  had  heaped  upon  them.  We  can  plainly  trace 
this  feeling  in  several  incidents  which  occurred  after 
the  supremacy  of  the  Reformation  had  become  assured. 


The  Reformation  in  Sweden.  121 

We  see  it  in  his  treatment  of  Bishop  Sommer,  and 
of  his  successor,  Bishop  Bothvid.  During  the  festivities 
connected  with  the  king's  second  marriage,  Bishop 
Sommer  declared  that  he  could  no  longer  sanction  and 
support  the  Lutheran  religion.  At  an  earlier  period 
of  his  reign  the  king  would  undoubtedly  have  allowed 
him  to  retain  his  see,  and  would  have  restricted  him 
only  from  the  practice  of  those  abuses  and  extortions 
by  which  the  Roman  clergy  had  heretofore  oppressed 
their  flocks.  But  upon  this  declaration  of  the  bishop, 
made  incidentally  under  a  sudden  impulse,  and  not 
intended  as  a  formal  announcement  of  his  purpose, 
Gustavus  immediately,  without  invoking  the  interven- 
tion or  advice  of  his  clergy,  deposed  him.  His  successor, 
an  Evangelical  Canon  of  Linkoping,  named  Bothvid, 
being  asked  by  the  king,  who  had  cast  a  longing  eye 
on  his  Episcopal  palace,  "In  what  chapter  of  the  Bible 
is  it  written  that  the  bishops  of  Strengness  should  live 
in  palaces  of  stone?"  replied,  "In  the  same  chapter 
that  gives  the  kings  of  Sweden  Church-tithes!"  The 
repartee  was  bright  but  indiscreet,  and  is  said  well 
nigh  to  have  provoked  the  fate  of  his  predecessor. 
The  Trial  ^ne  strengtn  of  this  feeling,  of  hostility  to 
and    Con-    the  clergy  on  the  part  of  Gustavus  is  pain- 

i}7arsAu-  full>"  aPParent  from  his  treatment  of  his  two 
derson  and  nearest  and  most  trusted  friends,  Anderson 
Olaus  Petri.  and  petri  Their  trial  and  condemnation  to 
death  four  years  after  the  conspiracy,  upon  charges 
which,  if  proved,  would  not  have  been  high  treason, 
and  the  alleged  proof  of  which  was  most  vague  and  un- 
satisfactory, lead  to  the  inevitable  inference  that  it  was 
passion  and  prejudice  which  drove  the  king  to  the  com- 
mission of  a  great  crime,  which  was  aggravated  by  its 
gross  ingratitude.     These  were  the   two  friends  who 


122  The  Reformation  in  Sweden. 

more  than  any  and  all  others  most  thoroughly  entered 
into  his  convictions  and  plans  for  the  Reformation. 
The  causes  of  his  alienation  from  them  arose  from 
changes  in  himself,  rather  than  from  any  deviation  on 
their  part,  from  the  policy  and  proceedings  which  he 
had  formerly  approved.  The  chancellor  sometimes 
acted  with  less  direct  reference  to  the  king  in  the  de- 
cisions which  came  within  his  jurisdiction  than  the 
latter,  more  and  more  bent  on  absorbing  all  power, 
temporal  and  spiritual,  approved.  Olaus,  full  of  en- 
thusiasm and  zeal,  sometimes  uttered  from  the  pulpit 
sharp  reproofs,  which  touched  Gustavus  nearly,  and 
which  he  could  not  but  see  were  directed  against  him. 
But  these  were  surely  pardonable  faults  on  the  part  of 
those  to  whom  he  and  Sweden  owed  such  immense 
obligations.  The  two  charges  upon  which  they  were 
convicted  by  the  commission  appointed  for  their  trial, 
were  that  they  had  been  cognizant  of  the  conspiracy 
which  was  discovered  four  years  since  and  had  not  di- 
vulged it,  because  it  was  made  known  to  them  under 
the  seal  of  the  confessional,  and  that  Olaus  in  the  Swed- 
ish Chronicles,  which  were  published  ten  years  before, 
had  made  severe  reflections  which  the  king  believed, 
but  without  probability  or  proof,  were  directed  against 
him. 

The  first  charge  seems  upon  the  face  of  it  most  im- 
probable. Lars  Anderson  had  earnestly  promoted  the 
Reformation  and  at  an  early  period,  at  the  command 
of  the  king,  had  translated  the  New  Testament  into 
Swedish,  and  had  with  great  reputation  filled  the  office 
of  High  Chancellor  of  the  Kingdom.  Olaus  Petri,  by 
his  preaching  and  publications  and  the  composition  of 
the  Church  Manual,  had  vindicated  the  Reformation 
and  given  shape  and  organization  to  the  Church.     He 


The  Reformation  in  Sweden.  123 

had  also  succeeded  Anderson  in  the  office  of  High 
Chancellor.  And,  although  a  qualified  confessional 
was  retained  in  the  early  period  of  the  Reformed 
Swedish  Church,  it  is  yet  incredible  that  one  whom 
Gustavus  felt  to  be  rather  too  much  than  too  little  of  a 
Reformer  and  one  so  near  and  dear  and  devoted  to  the 
king,  from  conscientious  scruples  which  only  bigoted 
Romanists  could  entertain,  had  kept  a  secret  on  which 
not  only  the  life  of  one  whom  he  so  much  honored,  but 
also  the  welfare  of  the  kingdom  and  the  success  of  the 
Reformation,  depended.  That  Gustavus,  who  had  so 
often  exhibited  indifference  to  abuse  and  retained  his 
dignity  in  the  midst  of  gross  misrepresentations,  should 
have  been  so  stung  by  seeming  reflections  against  him, 
which  were  published  ten  years  before,  and  the  appli- 
cation of  which  to  himself  seems  doubtful,  shows  that 
a  great  change  must  have  come  over  him,  the  causes 
of  which  will  presently  appear.  It  was  a  most  painful 
incident  in  this  mysterious  trial  that  the  Archbishop 
Laurentius  Petri  was  compelled  to  preside  and  sit  in 
judgment  on  his  brother.  The  lives  of  both  of  the  ac- 
cused were  spared,  as  it  was  probably  the  purpose  of 
Gustavus  that  they  should  be.  But  the  position  of  Olaus 
in  the  popular  regard  appears  from  the  fact  that  his  life 
was  ransomed  by  a  large  sum  of  money  advanced  for 
him  by  the  burghers  of  Stockholm.  His  vindication 
also  seems  to  have  been  pronounced  by  the  people, 
and  virtually  acquiesced  in  by  Gustavus  himself,  by  his 
restoration  three  years  after  to  the  Rectorship  of  the 
Church  in  Stockholm.  Anderson  ransomed  his  life  at 
the  price  of  the  surrender  of  all  that  he  possessed.  He 
remained  under  the  royal  displeasure  and  died  in  pov- 
erty and  obscurity. 

It   was  a  cruel  proceeding — this   condemnation  of 


124  The  Reformation  in  Sweden. 

those  whose  services  to  the  king  and  the  Reformation 

had  been  so  great,  and  whose  offense,  even  if  it  had 

been  proved,  which  it  was  not,  was  not  worthy  of  death. 

It  has  left  an  ineffaceable  stain  upon  the  else  luminous 

and  glorious  record  of  the  Great  King's  history.     The 

just  and  right-minded  son  of  Gustavus,  Charles  IX., 

was  so  convinced  upon  examination  of  the  innocence 

of  these  victims  of  his  father's  injustice  "  that  he  would 

not  allow  the  charges  against  them  to  remain  in  the 

history  of  his  father." 

Causes    of    The  growing  feeling  of  alienation  from  the 

the    Change    clergy  was  greatly  increased  by  the  advent 

in  the  Views  OJ  ,°  *  ■        .        * 

and    Policy    of  two  foreigners  into  the  kingdom,  through 

of  the  Ring.  wnose  influence  a  new  policy  in  ecclesiastical 
affairs  was  introduced.  Gustavus  was  led  by  them  into 
the  adoption  in  theory  and  in  practice  of  the  most  high- 
handed Erastianism.  His  dislike  of  the  Episcopate, 
which  was  the  greatest  obstacle  to  the  power  of  the 
king  in  spirituals,  was  also  inflamed  into  positive  hos- 
tility by  the  same  agency.  It  was  Conrad  Peutinger, 
who  came  into  Sweden  from  Germany  in  1538,  and  be- 
came Cantor  of  the  Cathedral  of  Upsala,  who  poisoned 
the  mind  of  Gustavus  against  Olaus  Petri  and  Lars  An- 
derson, and  secretly  put  in  motion  the  proceedings 
which  led  to  their  trial  and  condemnation.  In  his  pro- 
ject for  bringing  the  Church  of  Sweden  into  conformity 
to  the  Lutheran  churches  of  Germany  he  found  an  ef- 
ficient co-worker  in  an  ordained  Pomeranian  noble, 
George  Norman,  who  had  studied  at  Wittenberg,  and 
who  also  arrived  in  Sweden  in  15 38,  as  the  tutor 
of  Prince  Eric,  heir  to  the  Swedish  throne.  They  dwelt 
in  their  conversations  with  the  king  upon  the  differences 
between  the  Church  in  Sweden  and  all  the  Lutheran 
churches  of  Europe,  and  aggravated  the  restrictions  to 


The  Reformation  in   Sweden.  125 

which  he  was  subjected.  "  The  king  in  Sweden  ought 
to  have  the  same  power  over  the  Church  as  was  exer- 
cised by  all  the  German  princes.  Henry  VIII.  of  Eng- 
land had  made  himself  head  of  the  Church  in  his  king- 
dom. In  the  constitution  of  the  Church,  bishops  might 
well  be  dispensed  with,  or  at  least  limited  in  the  exer- 
cise of  their  powers.  Neither  Luther  nor  Melancthon 
were  bishops."  These  representations  fell  on  willing 
ears.  "  The  king  was  now  transformed  into  a  Protes- 
tant in  the  strictest  sense  of  the  term,  after  the  pattern 
of  German  Lutheranism." 
^  ±  After  the  condemnation  of  Olaus  Petri  and 

Depression 

of  the  Epis-  Anderson,  these  two  foreigners  enjoyed  the 
copate.  full  confidence  of  the  king,  and  directed  the 

ecclesiastical  affairs  of  the  kingdom.  Gustavus  himself 
adopted  a  harsh  and  angry  tone  towards  the  clergy. 
He  reproached  them  for  what  he  called  their  injudicious 
alterations  of  harmless  old  usages,  which  were  dear  to 
the  people,  and  whose  removal  excited  their  anger. 
He  signified  to  them  that  he  perceived,  that  like  the 
old  priesthood,  they  aimed  to  become  his  master.  Peu- 
tinger  was  advanced  to  the  chancellorship  of  the  king- 
dom, and  Norman  was  invested  with  a  superintendency 
whose  power  extended  to  all  the  clergy,  and  made  in 
effect  the  archbishop  to  be  under  his  authority  and  in 
a  sense  subject  to  his  jurisdiction.  If  it  were  not,  as 
there  is  reason  to  suppose  that  it  was,  the  design  of 
this  arrangement  ultimately  to  abolish  Episcopacy,  it 
cannot  be  denied  that  such  was  its  tendency,  and  that 
its  immediate  effect  was  to  depress  and  rob  it  of  its  old 
traditional  dignity  and  power.  The  king,  apparently 
in  imitation  of  Henry  VIII.,  and  employing  almost 
identical  phraseology,  announced  himself  as  "the  su- 
preme defender  of  the  Christian  faith  over  the  whole 


126  The  Reformation  in  Sweden. 

realm; "  and  in  a  letter  to  all  his  bishops,  prelates  and 
other  spiritual  pastors  and  preachers,  appointed  George 
Norman  as  his  ordinary  and  superintendent.  Norman, 
with  the  consent  of  a  council  and  assistant,  was  em- 
powered to  exercise  the  king's  jurisdiction  over  bish- 
ops, prelates  and  all  other  spiritual  persons.  He  was 
to  see  that  all  preachers  should  set  an  example  of  godly 
living  to  the  subjects  of  the  king.  All  spiritual  persons 
were  to  be  inducted  into  office  by  him,  and  his  visita- 
tions were  to  be  made  at  the  times  and  places  desig- 
nated by  the  king.  A  board  of  elders  who  were  lay- 
men were  to  follow  the  superintendent  and  see  that 
the  regulations  which  he  had  prescribed  were  carried 
into  effect.  One  of  the  prerogatives  of  the  office  of  su- 
perintendent, the  execution  of  which  caused  much 
clamor,  was  the  authority  to  abstract  from  the  churches 
as  much  of  their  ornaments  and  the  old  appliances  for 
worship,  with  their  gold  and  silver  and  jewels,  as  he 
should  judge  needful  for  the  king's  service.  This  new 
office  reduced  the  archbishops  and  the  bishops  to  in- 
significance and  inaction.  From  the  year  1544  the  king 
ceased  to  give  the  Episcopal  title  to  any  of  the  bishops 
except  the  Archbishop  of  Upsala.  The  other  bishops 
were  called  "ordinaries;"  and  as  all  jurisdiction  was 
practically  taken  from  them  by  the  Superintendent  and 
his  assistants,  nothing  remained  to  them  but  the  power 
of  preaching  and  ordaining.  To  diminish  still  further 
their  importance  and  their  power,  the  sees  of  Upsala 
and  of  Linkoping  were  divided  into  three  dioceses,  and 
those  of  Westeras  and  Strengness  each  into  two.  This 
continued  to  be  the  condition  and  constitution  of  the 
Church  in  Sweden  from  the  year  1544  to  the  close  of  his 
reign  in  1560.  From  this  period  to  the  end  of  his  reign 
Gustavus  openly  claimed  absolute  authority  in  Church 


The  Reformation  in  Sweden.  127 

and  State.  In  a  letter  to  the  peasantry  in  the  affair 
of  Dieting,  he  thus  wrote: 

41  Ye  would  wish  to  be  far  better  scholars  than  we 
and  many  good  men  beside,  and  hold  much  more  fast 
by  the  traitorous  abuses  of  the  old  bishops  and  papists 
than  by  the  Word  and  Gospel  of  the  living  God.  Far 
be  this  thought  from  you!  Tend  your  households,  fields 
and  meadows,  wives  and  children,  kine  and  sheep,  but 
set  to  us  no  bounds  in  governmejit  and  religion.  Since 
it  behooveth  us  a  Christian  monarch,  for  God's  sake  and 
for  righteousness,  conformably  to  all  natural  reason  to 
appoint  ordinances  and  rules  for  you,  so  that  if  ye  would 
not  look  to  have  wrath  and  chastisement  from  us,  ye 
should  be  obedient  to  our  royal  commandment  as  well 
in  religion  as  in  temporals." 

Conditionof  As  the  Church  was  settled  in  the  form  of  the 
the  Church  superintendency  of  a  presbyter  over  bishops, 
new  ar-  the  Archbishop  of  Upsala  alone  receiving  the 
rangement.  title  of  bishop,  all  others  of  that  order  being 
called  ordinaries — so  did  it  continue  during  the  remain- 
der of  the  reign  of  Gustavus.  The  absolutism  which 
the  king  had  established  over  the  Church — the  open  and 
peremptory  Erastianism  which  he  had  persuaded  him- 
self was  the  only  method  of  preserving  the  Church  from 
falling  back  into  the  power  of  the  papacy — continued 
undiminished.  In  the  midst  of  the  difficulties  in  which 
Gustavus  was  involved,  and  the  amazing  activity  which 
he  displayed,  in  bringing  his  kingdom  into  an  orderly 
administration,  and  in  developing  its  resources,  we  can 
trace  but  few  notices  of  the  condition  of  the  Church. 
Here  and  there  we  hear  of  an  appropriation  of  Church 
or  monastic  property  by  the  king,  which  causes  loud 
complaints;  of  the  efforts  of  the  king  to  secure  a  better 
educated  clergy;  of  his  heavy  hand  laid  upon  the  nobles; 


128  The  Reformation  in  Sweden. 

who  abused  the  power  of  reclaiming  estates  given  to  the 
Church  since  the  inquest  of  Charles  Canutson,  and  of  the 
gradual  decrease  of  the  partisans  of  the  old  Church  and 
the  corresponding  increase  of  the  adherents  to  the  new. 
The  characteristics  of  the  Church  thus  settled,  most  of 
which  have  continued  to  the  present  day,  may  thus  be 
briefly  indicated. 

i.  In  consequence  of  the  toleration  of  the  Church 
of  Rome,  and  of  the  efforts  of  Gustavus,  while  he  re- 
moved its  abuses,  to  avoid  as  far  as  possible  to  irritate 
the  people  by  too  sudden  a  change  in  the  externals  of 
worship  which  did  not  immediately  involve  and  express 
superstition  and  error,  there  were  retained  in  the  Church 
services  more  of  paraphernalia  and  ceremonialism  than 
was  usual  in  the  Lutheran  churches  in  countries  where  the 
Roman  worship  was  suppressed,  and  Episcopacy  did  not 
obtain.  The  cross  and  crucifixes  and  candles  and  gor- 
geous garments  in  the  administration  of  the  Lord's  Sup- 
per and  an  elaborate  ritual  were  still  maintained. 

2.  Another  characteristic  which  honorably  distin- 
guishes this  Church  and  is  especially  to  be  commended 
in  Gustavus  to  whom  it  is  due,  in  view  of  the  exasper- 
ating and  traitorous  opposition  which  he  endured  from 
the  partisans  of  the  Papal  Church,  was  the  absence  of 
persecution  and  the  toleration  of  the  Church  which  so 
constantly  labored  to  overthrow  both  Protestantism 
and  the  king.  There  were  no  fines,  punishments,  im- 
prisonments or  executions  for  holding  and  openly  pro- 
fessing the  faith  and  practicing  the  ceremonies  of  the 
Roman  Church.  There  was  indeed  a  cutting  off  of  its 
civil  privileges  and  supremacy,  a  protection  of  the  citi- 
zens and  of  the  members  of  the  Church  itself  from  the 
extortions  of  the  priesthood,  a  resumption  of  Church  and 
monastic  property  for  the  uses  of  the  State,  a  reduction 


The  Reformation  in  Sweden.  129 

of  the  livings  of  the  high  ecclesiastics  to  a  very  narrow 
allowance  compared  with  that  of  former  times,  and  a 
swift  and  sharp  punishment  of  treason,  with  no  regard 
to  rank  or  priestly  sanctity,  when  it  sheltered  itself  under 
the  plea  of  religion,  and  of  supreme  obligation  to  the  See 
of  Rome.  All  this  would  indeed  be  called  persecution 
by  those  whose  privileges  were  abridged;  but  there 
were  no  cruelties  exercised  against  peaceable  and  loyal 
members  of  the  Church  of  Rome,  merely  because  of  their 
adherence  to  the  old  faith.  We  cannot  say  so  much  of 
the  Lutheran  Churches  of  Germany  in  their  relation  to 
the  members  of  the  Roman  and  Reformed  Churches,  or 
of  the  Church  of  England  in  relation  to  Romanists  and 
Puritans.  Later  indeed  in  the  history  of  Sweden,  after 
prolonged  and  reiterated  proofs  of  the  essentially  trai- 
torous and  rebellious  character  of  Romanism,  this  toler- 
ant policy  ceased,  and  the  public  profession  of  Roman- 
ism was  not  allowed. 
^  „.  .1A]   The    secular  historian    of  the   last    sixteen 

TheCivilAa-  .  .     _      , 

ministration  years  of  the  reign  of  Gustavus  would  find 
of  Gustavus.  in  it  abUndant  proofs  of  his  great  adminis- 
trative ability,  his  wonderful  activity,  his  successful  ef- 
forts to  stimulate  the  industry  of  the  people,  and  de- 
velop the  resources  of  the  kingdom,  and  the  steady 
increase  of  veneration  and  admiration  for  him,  notwith- 
standing much  vexatious  opposition  to  which  he  was 
exposed  from  his  pugnacious  subjects.  He  would  also 
be  compelled  to  admit  that  Gustavus  became  greedy 
of  appropriating  to  himself,  sometimes  with  little  or  no 
claim,  a  large  share  of  the  forfeited  property  of  the 
churches  and  the  monasteries;  and  that  he  accumulated 
in  his  palace  a  large  treasure,  subsequently  squandered 
by  his  half-crazy  son  and  successor,  which  might  have 
been   well   employed   in   promoting  the   material   and 


130  The  Reformation  in  Sweden. 

moral  welfare  of  the  people.  During  the  remainder  of 
his  life  there  were  no  serious  internal  revolts;  and  but 
one  brief  war  with  Russia  in  reference  to  the  boundary 
of  Finland.  In  view  of  the  enormous  difficulties  which 
he  encountered,  the  reign  of  Gustavus  is  one  of  the  most 
remarkable  in  the  history  of  Europe,  and  entitles  him 
to  a  place  only  second  to  that  of  the  few  greatest  mon- 
archs — such  as  Alfred  and  Charlemagne  and  William 
the  Conqueror — who  were  pre-eminent  in  their  time, 
and  have  left  the  impress  of  their  genius  on  all  subse- 
quent generations. 

Secular  and  Inasmucn  as  we  have  thus  far  dealt  chiefly 
Religious  with  the  class  that  have  the  highest  educa- 
andthfcoi  cation— the  clergy— and  as  something  has 
ditionofthe  been  said  of  the  efforts  of  the  king  for  the 
Clergy.  secular  and  religious  education  of  the  peo- 

ple, a  higher  idea  of  the  civilization  of  Sweden  at  this 
period  may  be  inferred  than  the  facts  will  warrant. 
When  one  narrates  the  public  events  of  a  country  poor 
and  but  partially  civilized,  or  but  little  advanced  in  the 
refinements  of  life,  in  the  same  phraseology  with  which 
he  speaks  of  kingdoms  that  are  rich  and  cultivated,  he 
may  convey  a  wrong  impression  without  misstating 
facts.  It  is  natural  to  describe  the  public  events  of 
Sweden  and  France,  for  instance,  secular  and  religious, 
in  the  same  phraseology;  and  yet  in  the  one  case  it  is 
the  history  of  a  comparatively  poor  people  in  whose 
higher  classes  there  was  great  simplicity  of  life  and  no 
little  remaining  rudeness  of  manners,  in  the  other  it  is 
a  history  of  a  people  whose  aristocracy  were  highly 
cultivated  and  luxurious,  and  surrounded  with  all  the 
appliances  of  a  refined  civilization.  Hence  it  is  impor- 
tant to  present  a  sketch  of  the  condition  of  education 
in  the  kingdom,  with  the  remark  that  if  it  does  not  ex- 


The  Reformation  in  Sweden.  131 

hibit  a  bright  picture  of  the  national  life,  it  still  should 
be  remembered  that  it  shows  a  great  advance  over  the 
state  of  things  which  prevailed  previous  to  the  reign 
of  Gustavus. 

One  of  the  native  historians  of  the  kingdom 
the  Clergy*  gives  this  account  of  it,  as  it  appeared  to- 
andthePeo-    wards  the   close  of  the   reign  of  Gustavus. 

"The  older  seminaries  of  instruction  had 
been  too  closely  connected  with  the  ancient  church  not 
to  be  involved  in  its  downfall.  Hvitfeld  and  Messenius 
indeed  state  that  Gustavus  in  1540  revived  the  Univer- 
sity of  Upsala,  founded  twenty  years  before;  and  two 
years  previously  we  find  him  complaining  that  circum- 
stances did  not  permit  him  to  complete  this  work  which 
it  was  his  desire  to  accomplish.  In  the  archives  of  his 
reign  no  trace  of  its  actual  performance  is  to  be  found, 
although  they  supply  many  proofs  of  the  king's  foster- 
ing care  for  the  schools,  which  nevertheless  do  not  ap- 
pear in  all  respects  to  have  answered  their  object  if  we 
may  judge  by  the  trenchant  reproof  addressed  by  him 
to  the  bishops  in  the  year  preceding  his  death,  relative 
to  the  character  of  the  persons  who  were  supplied  to  him 
by  the  schools  for  the  service  of  the  State.  A  learned 
Swede  who  resided  abroad  draws  at  the  same  time  a  dark 
picture  of  the  condition  of  his  country  in  this  respect, 
and  concludes  that  the  large  hoard  of  gold  and  silver, 
the  military  stores,  the  ships,  the  arms  and  the  fortifi- 
cations were  rather  detrimental  than  profitable;  inas- 
much as  out  of  all  the  bands  which  the  king  every- 
where maintained,  not  without  great  cost  and  to  the 
sore  molestation  of  the  subject,  not  ten  men  were  to 
be  found  whose  counsel  he  might  employ  in  the  affairs 
of  his  kingdom;  and  the  same  held  true  of  the  nobles, 
of  the  heads  of  the  church,  and  of  the  priests.     Lieuten- 


132  The  Reformation  in  Sweden. 

ants  and  persons  in  authority  kept  each  of  them  a  sec- 
retary to  read  and  answer  the  king's  letters,  as  they 
were  themselves  unable  to  do  so.  Of  the  rudeness  and 
ignorance  of  the  clergy  many  proofs  remain.  Their 
manner  of  embracing  the  principles  of  the  Reforma- 
tion often  consisted  only  in  marrying  their  house- 
keepers, in  order  thereby  to  legitimate  the  offspring 
which  they  had  borne  them.  The  evangelical  minis- 
ters themselves  did  not  always  set  an  edifying  exam- 
ple. The  abolition  of  the  old  church  discipline  before 
the  new  order  of  things  was  matured,  was  generally 
productive  of  injurious  effects  on  domestic  morals.  The 
king,  whose  own  life  was  pure,  and  deportment  blame- 
Jess,  often  denounces  the  prevailing  corruption  of  man- 
ners. To  what  extent  this  reached  where  other  cir- 
cumstances favored  the  lawlessness  of  the  ill-disposed, 
as  on  the  frontiers,  is  best  shown  by  his  letter  to  the 
inhabitants  of  the  prefecture  of  Kronoberg  in  1554.  In 
this,  referring  probably  to  the  visitation  of  1550,  he  re- 
proves those  who,  living  on  the  borders,  and  moving 
hither  and  thither,  now  into  Denmark  and  now  into 
Sweden,  are  regardless  of  their  marriage  vow,  and  take 
to  wife  one  woman  after  another,  as  they  would  change 
their  horses.  He  commanded  the  prefects  to  watch 
narrowly  the  proceedings  of  these  loose  companions. 
At  the  same  time  the  severity  of  the  temporal  penal- 
ties was  increased  till  at  length  adultery  was  punished 
with  death. 

The  latter  ^^e  ^atter  days  of  Gustavus  were  darkened 
DaysofGus-  by  great  domestic  sorrows.  His  eldest  son 
Eric,  the  heir  to  the  throne,  a  prince  of  great 
ability,  but  vicious  and  eccentric,  and  excitable  to  a 
degree  little  short  of  derangement,  caused  him  great 
trouble,  and  filled  him  with  anxiety  for  the  future  of 


The  Reformation  in  Sweden.  133 

himself  and  of  his  kingdom.  The  king  had  assigned 
to  him  the  province  of  Calmar;  and  there  he  had  ex- 
ercised his  authority  with  reckless  cruelty,  and  sur- 
rounded himself  with  a  gay  and  licentious  court  and 
plunged  into  revelry  and  excess.  And  that  which 
broke  the  heart  of  the  king,  and  sent  him  soon  after 
to  the  grave,  was  the  misconduct  of  his  favorite  beau- 
tiful and  gifted  daughter  Cecelia.  "  The  court  poets," 
says  the  historian  Freyxell,  "praise  her  as  lovelier 
than  Venus;  they  could  not  sufficiently  extol  her 
white  skin,  her  golden  hair,  and  her  sparkling  eyes; 
and  they  protested  that  her  soul  was  adorned  with 
equal  virtues.  But  she  soon  exhibited  an  incorri- 
gible levity  and  vanity  which  led  her  to  a  guilty  in- 
trigue with  Count  Edgard  of  Friesland;  and  to  an 
after-life  of  frequent  adulteries,  and  of  intemperance, 
which  ended  in  a  dishonored  and  disowned  old  age. 
Eric  caused  his  father  much  anxiety,  and  great  ex- 
pense, in  his  Quixotic  efforts  to  secure  the  hand  of  the 
Princess  Elizabeth,  afterward  queen,  of  England. 
Without  the  slightest  encouragement,  and  indeed  in 
the  face  of  emphatic  dissuasives  from  the  princess, 
he  continued  to  urge  his  wild  suit,  and  to  send  ex- 
pensive embassies  to  England.  All  these  domestic 
troubles,  and  especially  the  dishonor  of  his  favorite 
daughter,  broke  the  spirits  of  the  old  king,  and 
brought  on  a  decline  of  health  and  an  enfeeblement 
of  his  powers  of  body  and  of  mind.  The  loss  of  his 
beloved  wife  Margaret,  and  of  many  of  his  contempo- 
raries, his  co-workers  in  the  task  of  emancipating 
Sweden,  was  not  compensated  by  his  union  with  a 
third  wife,  young  and  beautiful  and  excellent,  Cathe- 
rine Leyohnhufwud.  That  indeed  brought  with  it 
also  a  new  element  of  annoyance,  from  the  fact  that 


134  The  Reformation  in  Sweden. 

Catherine  was  a  niece  of  the  late  queen  of  Gustavus, 
and  that  his  nearest  friend,  Archbishop  Laurentius 
Petri,  and  many  other  ecclesiastics,  denounced  the 
marriage  as  incestuous  and  unlawful.  With  failing 
powers  and  with  frequent  deep  depression,  the  old  king, 
feeling  that  his  end  was  near,  summoned  a  general 
meeting  of  all  the  States  in  order  to  receive  from  them 
the  confirmation  of  his  last  will  and  testament,  in 
which  he  appointed  Eric  his  successor  and  indicated 
the  disposition  to  be  made  of  the  great  wealth  and 
the  numerous  estates  all  over  the  kingdom  which  he 
had  acquired.  The  scene  of  that  last  audience  of  the 
king  with  his  States  was  very  impressive. 
The  Kino's  The  meeting  took  place  in  the  hall  of  audi- 
lastspeechto  ence  in  the  palace  of  Stockholm  on  the  25th 
and  his  of  June.  When  the  States  were  assembled 
Death.  the  king  entered,  leaning  upon  the  arms  of 

his  two  eldest  sons.  His  sons  Duke  Eric,  Duke  John 
and  Duke  Magnus  stood  at  his  left  hand  in  the  order 
of  their  age;  and  his  young  son  Duke  Charles,  still  a 
child,  stood  by  his  knee.  The  king  having  saluted 
the  States,  they  listened  for  the  last  time  to  the  elo- 
quence which  they  liked  so  well,  that  when  in  the 
Diet  Gustavus  deputed  some  one  else  to  speak  for  him 
they  were  wont  to  cry  out  that  they  wanted  to  hear 
their  father-king.  Then  the  king  spoke  as  follows: — 
14 1  venerate  the  power  of  God  who  in  me  has  ele- 
vated to  the  old  throne  of  Sweden  the  old  race  of 
Sweden's  kings  from  Magnus  Ladulas  and  Karl  Ca- 
nutson.  Those  amongst  you  who  have  attained  to 
many  years  have  doubtless  learned  how  our  dear  Fa- 
therland was  for  many  centuries  before  in  great  misery 
and  oppression,  under  foreign  rulers  and  kings,  espe- 
cially under  the  harsh  tyrant  King  Christian,  and  how 


The  Reformation  in  Sweden.  135 

it  has  pleased  God  through  me  to  deliver  us  from 
this  tyranny.  Therefore  ought  we,  high  and  low,  lord 
and  master,  old  and  young,  never  to  forget  the  same 
Almighty  aid.  For  what  man  was  I  to  expel  so 
mighty  a  lord,  who  not  only  ruled  over  three  king- 
doms, but  was  allied  and  nearly  connected  with  the 
Emperor  and  the  most  powerful  princes.  I  could  not 
imagine  so  great  a  glory  would  be  mine  when  in  forests 
and  among  the  rocks  of  the  desert,  I  was  obliged  to 
conceal  myself  from  the  sword  of  the  blood-thirsty 
enemy.  But  God  impelled  the  work  and  made  me  his 
instrument  by  whom  his  Omnipotence  should  be  re- 
vealed; and  I  may  well  compare  myself  to  David, 
whom  the  Lord  took  from  being  a  poor  shepherd  to 
be  a  king  over  all  his  people — "  and  here  the  tears 
burst  from  his  eyes. 

"  I  thank  you,  faithful  subjects,  that  you  have  been 
pleased  to  elevate  me  to  the  royal  dignity  and  make 
me  the  ancestor  of  your  royal  house.  Nor  less  do  I 
thank  you  for  the  fidelity  and  aid  you  have  given  me 
in  my  government.  That  during  this  time  God  has 
permitted  his  pure  and  precious  Word  to  enter  in 
among  us,  that  also  in  temporal  concerns  he  has 
prospered  and  endowed  the  kingdom  with  all  manner 
of  blessing  as  we  see  before  our  eyes;  for  this  we 
ought,  good  men  and  subjects,  with  the  greatest  hu- 
mility and  gratitude,  to  give  God  the  glory. 

"  It  is  well  known  to  me,  that  I,  in  the  estimation  of 
many,  have  been  a  stern  king;  but  the  time  will  come 
when  the  children  of  Sweden  would  wish  to  tear  me 
from  my  grave  if  they  could  do  it.  But  I  must  not 
blush  to  acknowledge  human  weaknesses  and  failings, 
for  none  is  perfect  and  without  fault.  Therefore  I  beg 
you,  that  you,  as  faithful  subjects,  will  for  Christ's  sake 


136  The  Reformation  in  Sweden. 

forgive  and  overlook  what  errors  there  may  have  been 
in  my  government.  My  intentions  have  always  been 
for  the  weal  of  this  kingdom  and  its  inhabitants.  My 
gray  harrs,  my  wrinkled  brow,  bear  sufficient  witness 
to  the  many  dangers,  adversities  and  cares,  which  I  in 
the  forty  years  of  my  reign   have  had  to  undergo. 

" 1  know  well  that  the  Swedes  are  swift  to  promise, 
slow  to  execute.  I  can  clearly  see  that  many  spirits 
of  delusion  will  arise  in  the  future;  I  therefore  pray 
and  exhort  you  to  hold  fast  to  God's  Word;  and  reject 
what  does  not  agree  with  it.  Be  obedient  to  your 
rulers  and  united  among  yourselves.  My  time  is  soon 
out.  I  neither  require  stars  nor  any  other  sign  to 
prophecy  that  to  me.  I  feel  in  my  own  body  the 
tokens  that  I  shall  soon  go  hence,  and  at  the  foot  of 
the  King  of  king's  lay  down  my  account  for  the  glo- 
rious but  perishable  crown  of  the  kingdom  of  Sweden. 
Follow  me  therefore  with  your  faithful  prayers,  and 
when  I  have  laid  my  eyes  together  let  my  ashes  rest 
in  peace." 

"With  that,"  writes  Freyxell,  "he  stretched  out  his 
hand  for  the  last  time  blessing  his  people.  His  gray 
hair,  his  fallen,  but  still  majestic  appearance,  the  tears 
which  sometime  came  into  his  eyes,  his  voice  ever 
pleasant,  but  now  tremulous  with  age  and  emotion, 
and  finally  the  thought  that  they  were  about  to  lose 
him  for  ever — him,  their  father,  teacher  and  benefactor 
— all  combined  to  awaken  the  deepest  emotions  in  the 
whole  assembly.  Tears  streamed  from  every  eye,  and 
they  could  scarcely  prevent  their  sobs  from  drowning 
the  sound  of  the  beloved  voice.  Gustavus  arose  and 
supporting  himself  on  his  two  eldest  sons,  he  left  the 
hall,  turning  his  head  now  and  then,  by  looks  and 
tearful  eyes,  to  take  yet  a  last  farewell.     The  assem- 


The  Reformation  in  Sweden.  137 

bly  followed  closely  on  his  traces;  those  who  could 
not  in  person  followed  by  their  looks  his  gray  head, 
with  tears  imploring  a  thousand  blessings  on  it." 

Gustavus  died  on  the  29th  of  September  and  was 
buried  in  the  cathedral  of  Upsala. 

Description  Instead  of  the  attempt  to  delineate  the 
of  Gustavus.  character  of  Gustavus,  I  will  give  almost  all 
the  chapter  in  which  the  native  historian  Freyxell 
draws  a  graphic  picture  of  one  of  the  noblest  and  most 
interesting  characters  in  the  history  of  modern  Europe. 
In  a  work  the  title  of  which  is  the  Reformation  in 
Sweden,  I  have  done  little  else  than  describe  the 
personal  career  of  Gustavus.  Inasmuch  therefore 
as  the  history  of  the  king  cannot  be  separated  from 
that  of  the  Reformation,  we  may  with  propriety 
— indeed  we  must  from  necessity — give  a  fuller  ac- 
count of  the  character  of  him  by  whom,  in  an  exclu- 
sive sense  which  does  not  apply  to  any  other  monarch 
the  Reformation  in  his  country  was  accomplished. 
There  is  a  great  charm  in  the  narrative  which  is  here 
quoted — in  the  characteristic  national  simplicity  of  the 
picture  and  the  essentially  Swedish  atmosphere  which 
invests  it.  We  see  in  it  a  true  kingliness,  not  devoid, 
in  its  essential  characteristics,  of  all  the  august  accom- 
paniments which  belong  to  the  regal  state;  and  yet 
connected  with  a  simplicity  of  life  and  manners  which 
is  usually  associated  only  with  republican  institutions. 

"King  Gustavus  I.  was  a  tall  and  well  made  man, 
somewhat  above  six  feet  high.  He  had  a  firm  and 
full  body  without  spot  or  blemish,  strong  arms,  deli- 
cate legs,  small  and  beautiful  hands  and  feet.  His 
hair  of  a  bright  yellow,  combed  down  and  cut  straight 
across  from  his  eyebrows;  forehead  of  a  middle  height 
with  two  perpendicular  lines  between  the  eyes  which 


138  The  Reformation  in  Sweden. 

were  blue  and  piercing;  his  nose  straight  and  not  long, 
red  lips  and  roses  on  his  cheek  even  in  his  old  age. 
His  beard,  in  his  younger  years,  was  brown  and  parted, 
a  hand  breadth  long  and  cut  straight  across;  in  later 
years  growing  at  will,  till  it  at  last  reached  his  waist, 
and  became  hoary  like  his  hair.  As  his  body  was 
faultless  in  every  respect,  any  dress  which  he  wore 
became  him.  Fortune  favored  him  in  everything  which 
he  undertook;  fishing,  hunting,  agriculture,  cattle- 
breeding,  mining,  even  to  casting  the  dice,  when  he 
could  be  induced  to  take  part  in  it,  which  however 
was  very  seldom. 

"As  in  his  body  so  in  his  soul  was  Gustavus  endowed 
with  noble  qualities.  His  memory  was  so  strong  that 
having  seen  a  person  once,  after  the  lapse  of  ten  or 
twelve  years  he  recognized  him  again  at  first  sight. 
The  road  he  had  once  traveled  he  could  never  mistake 
again;  he  knew  the  names  of  the  villages;  nay  even  the 
names  of  the  persons  who  lived  there  during  his  youth- 
ful excursions.  As  was  his  memory  such  was  also  his 
understanding.  When  he  saw  a  painting,  sculpture,  or 
architecture,  he  could  immediately  and  acutely  judge 
its  merits  and  defects,  though  he  had  never  himself 
received  any  instruction  in  those  arts. 

"When  there  was  a  crowd  of  people  at  the  palace 
he  spoke  with  each  and  on  the  subjects  which  those  he 
addressed  best  understood.  No  man  in  the  kingdom 
was  so  well  acquainted  with  it  as  himself;  none  knew 
as  well  as  he  did  in  what  its  deficiencies  lay.  For  this 
reason,  and  because  in  the  beginning  he  was  entirely 
without  well  informed  and  capable  officers,  he  was 
obliged  himself  to  compose  every  ordinance  and  de- 
cree which  he  enacted,  and  the  kingdom  was  not  a 
loser  by  it. 


The  Reformation  in  Sweden.  139 

"Firmness  and  perseverance  in  what  he  undertook 
were  striking  features  of  his  character.  Example  suf- 
ficient of  this  we  find  in  his  long , vehement,  but  honestly 
conducted,  struggle  with  the  power  of  Popery.  Most 
others  would  have  wearied  or  desired  by  a  blow  to 
decide  the  matter  by  violence.  Gustavus  let  time  and 
reflection  work  for  him;  though  slowly  he  went  ever  for- 
ward. Seldom  or  never  did  he  change  his  resolution;  it 
was  an  adage  of  his  which  he  often  repeated:  '  Better 
say  once  and  remain  by  it  than  speak  a  hundred  times.' 

11  He  was  a  stern  and  serious  gentleman  and  well 
knew  how  to  preserve  his  dignity.  It  was  not  advisable 
for  any,  whether  high  or  low,  to  encroach  upon  it;  in 
such  circumstances  he  rebuked  peasants,  bishops  or 
kings  with  equal  severity.  He  was  just  but  severe  with 
the  men  whom  he  had  placed  in  civil  charges;  on  which 
account  many  abandoned  him.  When  any  one  labored 
to  show  off  his  talents  and  capabilities  in  the  hope  of 
ingratiating  himself  or  others,  or  commenced  to  extol 
such  an  one,  the  sharp-sighted  king  would  answer:  '  He 
is  but  a  dabbler  with  all  his  pound  from  our  Lord.' 

"Gustavus  was  careful  of  money;  for  he  said  it  costs 
the  sweat  and  labor  of  his  subjects.  His  court  was 
very  frugal.  He  generally  lived  at  one  or  other  of  the 
royal  estates  and  consumed  their  produce.  His  chil- 
dren were  kept  strictly.  Hams  and  butter  were  sent 
from  the  country  for  the  supper  of  the  princes  in  Upsala; 
the  queen  herself  sewed  their  shirts,  and  it  was  con- 
sidered a  great  present  if  one  of  the  princesses  got  a 
blank  Ricks  thaler.  Gustavus's  love  of  money  seduced 
him  into  several  injustices,  which  however  in  those 
days  were  not  so  striking  as  they  would  be  now.  He 
sometimes  permitted  parishes  to  remain  without  rec- 
tors, having  them  administered  by  vicars,  and  appro- 


140  The  Reformation  in  Sweden. 

priated  their  returns  to  himself.  He  forbade  the  export 
of  cattle  to  his  subjects  in  general,  buying  them  at  a 
low  price  from  the  peasants,  and  selling  them  abroad 
at  a  great  profit.  This  last  circumstance  was  one  of 
the  chief  causes  of  the  Dacke  or  peasants'  revolt. 
Several  things  of  this  kind  which  are  not  creditable  to 
him  are  related;  but  the  people  overlooked  them  for 
the  sake  of  his  many  virtues.  They  knew  also  that 
this  money  was  not  uselessly  squandered.  Herr  Eskills 
Hall  and  the  other  vaulted  chambers  of  the  treasury 
were  full  of  good  silver  bullion  at  the  king's  death. 
When  however  pomp  was  required  he  did  not  spare, 
but  showed  himself  the  equal  of  other  kings.  The 
Lord's  Anointed  he  said  should  be  girded  with  splendor, 
that  the  commonalty  may  view  him  with  reverence  and 
not  imagine  themselves  to  be  the  equals  of  majesty  to 
the  small  profit  of  the  land. 

"A  pure  and  unaffected  piety  dwelt  in  his  heart 
and  showed  itself  in  his  actions.  Prayers  were  read 
morning  and  evening  in  his  apartments;  divine  service 
he  never  neglected.  He  was  better  informed  of  the 
contents  of  the  Bible  and  catechism  than  the  most  of 
the  priests  in  his  kingdom.  Therefore  Le  Palm,  his 
chief  physician,  wrote  of  him  to  Paris:  '  My  king  is  a 
God's  prince  who  has  scarce  his  equal  in  spiritual  and 
temporal  measure.  He  is  so  experienced  in  Scripture 
that  he  can  rectify  his  priests,  and  none  understands 
the  government  of  the  kingdom  like  himself.'  During 
the  Dacke  revolt  Gustavus  wrote  to  the  rebels:  '  Ye  can 
threaten  us  much  as  ye  will;  ye  can  drive  us  from  our 
royal  throne;  rob  us  of  estate,  wife,  and  children;  aye, 
of  life  itself;  but  from  that  knowledge  which  we  have 
attained  of  God's  Word  ye  shall  never  part  us  as  long 
as  our  heart  is  whole  and  our  blood  warm.' 


The  Reformation  in  Sweden.  141 

"  He  was  equally  venerable  in  his  domestic  life. 
No  vice  stains  his  memory.  He  liked  the  society  of 
handsome  and  agreeable  women;  but  no  mistress,  no 
illegitimate  child,  not  the  slightest  foible,  can  be  laid 
to  his  charge,  though  he  was  forty-one  before  he  mar- 
ried for  the  first  time.  His  marriage  vows  he  kept  in- 
violate. Gluttony,  drunkenness,  gambling,  and  idleness 
were  what  he  could  never  endure  in  others,  much  less 
in  himself. 

"  As  he  in  his  younger  years  was  of  a  cheerful  tem- 
per, when  business  was  done,  he  kept  a  gay  and  lively 
court,  though  in  all  sobriety.  Every  afternoon  at  a 
certain  hour  the  lords  and  ladies  assembled  in  the 
great  hall  where  the  king's  musicians  made  music  for 
them  while  they  danced.  'For,'  said  he,  'youth 
should  not  be  clownish  but  gallant  to  the  ladies  and  to 
all.'  They  were  often  out  together  to  walk  or  to  hunt; 
once  a  week  a  school  for  fencing  was  open  for  the  young 
nobles;  tournaments  were  afterwards  introduced,  at 
which  the  victors  received  their  rewards  at  the  hands 
of  the  fairest  of  the  ladies.  They  often  entertained 
themselves  with  music,  with  song  as  well  as  playing 
on  stringed  instruments,  the  latter  especially  in  which 
the  king  delighted.  He  made  and  himself  played 
several  instruments,  of  which  the  lute  was  his  favorite. 
There  was  never  an  evening  when  he  was  alone  that 
he  did  not  occupy  some  hours  with  it. 

"He  often  traveled  through  the  country,  chiefly  to 
great  markets  and  other  meetings  where  he  addressed 
the  people;  sometimes  instructing  them  in  matters  of 
faith;  sometimes  regarding  their  housekeeping,  agri- 
culture, cattle-breeding,  and  so  on.  The  peasants  soon 
learned  that  the  king's  advice  was  good  and  listened 
to  him  willingly;  also  on  account  of  his  extraordinary 


142  The  Reformation  in  Sweden. 

eloquence.  His  voice  was  strong,  clear,  and  expressive 
in  sound.  No  king  of  Sweden  ever  was,  or  deserved  to 
be,  more  beloved  by  the  common  people,  than  he  was. 
Any  peasants  who  possessed  any  fortune  used  to  leave 
by  will  some  silver  to  the  king,  so  that  at  his  death  no 
inconsiderable  store  of  bequeathed  silver  was  found  in 
the  treasury;  and  in  the  unquiet  years  which  followed 
the  people  ever  used  to  speak  with  regret  of  Old 
King  GUSTAF  and  his  happy  days. 

"  Gustavus  loved  and  protected  learning.  He  was, 
however,  supremely  desirous  of  the  instruction  of  the 
people,  and  sought  by  every  means  to  get  a  sensible 
and  well-informed  peasantry.  His  own  children  re- 
ceived a  careful  education;  so  that  they  were  among 
the  most  learned  of  their  day.  Like  his  children  were 
the  whole  Wasa  dynasty  as  far  as  Christina;  so  that 
the  royal  house  was  the  first,  not  only  in  pomp  and 
bravery;  but  likewise  in  science  and  knowledge;  and 
in  this  last  respect  not  only  in  Sweden  but  in  all 
Europe. 

"When  the  king  grew  older  and  his  children  were 
growing  up,  he  used  often,  after  meals,  to  sit  before  the 
fire  and,  conversing  with  them,  give  them  useful  ex- 
hortations on  many  points.  It  was  a  royal  school  in 
its  teacher,  discipline,  and  doctrines.  '  Be  steady  in 
your  faith  and  united  among  yourselves,'  said  he.  'If 
you  fail  in  the  first  you  anger  your  Maker;  if  you  neg- 
lect the  second  you  will  fall  a  prey  to  man.  Make  war 
by  compulsion — peace  without  compulsion — but  should 
your  neighbor  threaten — strike.  From  my  very  child- 
hood and  ever  since  I  have  been  at  war:  oftenest  with 
my  countrymen — sad  to  say!  And  I  have  grown  gray 
in  armor.  Believe  me,  seek  peace  with  all!'  Many 
other  and  salutary   counsels   follow — but   enough   are 


The  Reformation  in  Sweden.  143 

here  given  to  show  his  character  and  his  sagacity.  I 
think  it  will  be  difficult  to  find  anywhere  a  nobler  pic- 
ture of  a  true  father-king;  or  one  in  which  we  can 
point  to  so  few  deficiencies  and  faults." 

A  complete  idea  of  the  work  of  Gustavus  in 
andCustams  Sweden  cannot  well  be  conceived,  without  a 
of  the  Time    sketch  of  the  manners  and  customs  of  the 

time  in  which  he  lived.  This  also  is  taken 
unchanged  from  the  same  historian,  Freyxell. 

"Frugality  and  simplicity  in  everyday  life;  pomp, 
often  both  tasteless  and  ridiculous,  on  solemn  occa- 
sions— such  were  the  marks  of  the  times.  Many  of  our 
conveniences  were  wanting;  glass  was  very  rare;  and 
instead  of  the  wooden  shutters  once  in  use,  fine  net 
work,  linen,  or  parchment,  was  now  taken  to  supply 
their  place.  Hearths  instead  of  stoves  were  used  for  a 
couple  of  hundred  of  years  longer.  Carpets,  very  coarse 
for  the  poor,  embroidered  with  gold  and  silk  for  the 
rich,  covered  the  coarsely  timbered  walls.  Thick 
benches  were  attached  to  them  around  the  room, 
oaken  in  the  houses  of  the  rich.  Before  them  stood 
long  heavy  tables,  and  small  stools  moved  about  the 
room.  Plates  were  scarce  and  were  never  changed,  if 
the  dishes  were  never  so  many  and  so  various.  Every 
guest  had  to  bring  his  knife,  fork,  and  spoon  with  him. 
Clocks  were  so  rare  that  when  the  Grand  Duke  of  Mus- 
covy received  one  as  a  present  from  the  king  of  Den- 
mark, he  thought  it  must  be  an  enchanted  animal  sent 
for  the  ruin  of  himself  and  his  kingdom,  wherefore  he 
returned  it  with  the  utmost  dispatch  to  Copenhagen. 
Dinner  was  eaten  at  ten,  supper  at  five;  between  nine 
and  ten  they  went  to  bed,  to  rise  the  earlier  in  the 
morning.  Wearing  apparel  was  mostly  woolen;  linen 
was  rarely  used  next  the  skin.     Holiday  dresses  were 


144  The  Reformation  in  Sweden. 

costly  but  substantial;  the  same  petticoat  often  served 
in  succession  mother,  daughter,  and  grand-daughter,  on 
festal  occasions.  The  women  had  their  hair  combed 
back  and  long  tight-fitting  gowns  with  stiff  high  ruffles. 
The  men  wore  the  Spanish  dress.  Their  hair  was  in 
the  beginning  long  and  their  beard  shaved;  but  this 
was  soon  changed,  so  that  the  clergy  alone  retained 
the  long  hair  and  the  smooth  skin;  the  others  adopted 
short  hair  and  long  beard.  Wax  lights  were  used  only 
in  churches,  tallow  candles  by  the  richest  and  greatest, 
torches  of  dry  wood  by  the  people.  The  beds  were 
broad,  fastened  to  the  wall,  and  few  in  number;  the 
guests  were  laid  several  together,  often  with  the  host 
himself.  This  was  the  case  even  in  the  houses  of 
princes.  The  roads  were  so  bad  that  carriages  could 
seldom  be  used;  besides,  the  first  coach  was  not  intro- 
duced until  the  reign  of  John  III.  Most  journeys  took 
place  on  horseback,  and  when  it  rained  the  princes 
were  wrapped  in  wax-cloth  cloaks.  High  titles  were 
not  in  use.  The  king  was  called  His  Grace;  the  princes 
Yunker  Young  Lord,  the  princesses  Jr'okcn,  young 
ladies.  The  nobles  did  not  use  their  family  but  their 
fathers'  name.  There  was  much  of  savage  wildness  and 
disorder  yet  among  the  people,  partly  on  account  of 
the  times  and  the  long  domestic  broils.  Club  law  was 
more  resorted  to  than  the  law  of  the  land.  Arms  were 
in  continual  wear  and  exercise.  According  to  an  old 
custom  the  knights  entered  the  bridal  bed  in  full  armor; 
but,  like  the  knights  of  old,  they  were  generally  igno- 
rant in  the  highest  degree,  especially  the  elder  among 
them.  Many  of  King  Gustavus's  officers  and  governors 
were  unable  to  read,  still  less  to  write ;  they  were  obliged 
to  keep  a  clerk  on  purpose  to  read  and  answer  the  king's 
letters.     The  Romish  faith  was  done  away  with,  but 


The  Reformation  in  Sweden.  145 

many  of  its  superstitions  remained,  and  that  not  alone 

among  the  people,  but  even  the  great  ones  of  the  land 

believed    in    witchcraft,   fairies,    elves,    brownies,    etc. 

The  art  of  medicine  consisted  chiefly  in  prayers  and 

exorcisms." 

Gustavusre-    There  is  a  singular  resemblance  in  the  per- 

peats  the  sonal  character  of  Gustavus  and  Charle- 
Mistake    of  T,    .      ,  ,    .       ,<,      .    -r 

Charle-    magne.     It  is  by  no  means  certain  that  11 

magne.  the  former  had   occupied  as  wide  a  sphere 

as  the  latter  he  would  not  have  exhibited  as  great  gifts 
of  organization  and  administration.  And,  in  the  case 
of  both,  it  seems  remarkable  that  men  so  sagacious  and 
experienced  should  have  committed  the  fatal  mistake 
of  assigning  the  government  of  large  principalities  to 
their  younger  sons  which  rendered  them  in  combination 
more  powerful,  though  with  less  lofty  titles,  than  the 
heir  who  succeeded  to  the  throne  and  name  of  king. 
In  both  cases  this  mistaken  policy  was  the  cause  of 
subsequent  civil  wars  and  convulsions,  which  arrested 
the  kingdoms  in  which  it  was  adopted  in  the  path  of 
improvement,  upon  which  they  were  rapidly  advancing. 
We  shall  find  in  this  proceeding  an  explanation  of  the 
fact  that  during  the  reign  of  Eric  there  is  scarcely  any- 
thing that  can  be  called  Church  History;  although  the 
events  of  that  troubled  era  led  to  that  Counter-Refor- 
mation which,  with  vague  and  vacillating  policy,  was 
introduced  by  king  John,  the  successor  of  Eric,  and 
counteracted  by  his  successor,  king  Charles.  In  order, 
therefore,  to  comprehend  the  events  for  which  his  reign 
prepared  the  way,  we  must  trace  an  outline  of  Eric's 
stormy  and  guilty  and  tragic  life.  I  leave,  for  a  time, 
almost  entirely,  Church  History;  and  give  myself  to 
the  narration  of  events  which  verified  the  saying  of  the 
old  king,  that  although  he  had  been  regarded  as  a  stern 


146  The  Reformation  in  Sweden. 

ruler,  the  time  would  come  when  the  children  of  Sweden 
would  wish  to  tear  him  from  his  grave.  But  although 
the  narrative  is  not  Church  History  it  is  that  without 
which  the  Church  History  which  followed  could  not  be 
understood. 


CHAPTER    VII. 

KING    ERIC    AND    HIS    BROTHERS. 

A  BRIEF  mention  has  already  been  made  of  the 
dark  side  of  Eric's  character.  But  that  mere 
allusion  furnishes  a  very  imperfect  idea  of  his  character 
as  a  whole.  In  his  boyhood  he  gave  the  promise  of  an 
exceptionally  gifted  and  brilliant  manhood.  He  inher- 
ited from  his  stalwart  father  a  handsome  and  vigorous 
physique.  As  a  youth  he  was  equaled  by  few  of  his 
companions  in  racing,  swimming,  and  dancing,  in  tour- 
naments, and  in  all  feats  of  agility.  "  It  was  a  pleasure," 
says  his  biographer,  "but  a  fearful  one,  to  see  him  ca- 
reering on  horseback." 

His  mental  gifts,  his  literary  accomplishments,  and  his 
solid  learning,  were  quite  beyond  those  of  his  companions 
of  the  nobility,  and  not  often  surpassed  by  professional 
scholars.  He  wrote  and  spoke  Latin  correctly  and 
readily;  he  was  skilled  in  astronomy  and  mathematics; 
and — unfortunately  for  his  peace  of  mind — in  astrology. 
He  was,  like  his  father,  a  lover  and  composer  of  music; 
and  his  poetry  in  Swedish  was  counted  the  best  of  his 
day.  In  view  of  his  subsequent  career  and  his  crimes 
it  seems  singular  to  learn  that  two  of  his  hymns  and 
two  of  his  penitential  psalms  are  included  in  the  Swed- 
ish Psalm  book.  His  first  tutor  was  Geo.  Normann,  who 
was  sent  to  Sweden  by  Luther.     He  subsequently  had 


148  The  Reformation  in  Sweden. 

for  his  tutors  two  men  who  exercised  a  very  deleterious 
influence  upon  his  excitable  and  impressible  character. 
Burraeus,  a  Frenchman,  first  put  into  his  mind  the 
ambition  to  marry  Elizabeth  of  England;  and  Goran 
Persson  was  his  evil  genius,  stimulating  his  suspicious 
temper,  and  prompting  him  to  deeds  of  cruelty  through- 
out all  his  unhappy  reign. 

All  the  eminent  gifts  and  advantages  with  which 
Eric  was  endowed  were  neutralized  by  his  unhappy 
temperament.  He  was  passionate,  suspicious,  capri- 
cious, and  devoted  to  pleasure  with  a  mad  eagerness  that 
seemed  almost  insanity.  These  high  excitements  were 
often  followed  by  deep  and  moody  melancholy.  His 
suspicion  and  dislike  was,  at  an  early  period,  excited 
against  his  brother  John  by  the  evident,  and  indeed  the 
inevitable,  preference  of  Gustavus  for  him,  as  the  son  of 
his  beloved  Margaret,  and  one  in  whose  purity,  steadi- 
ness, and  force  of  character  he  placed  more  confidence 
than  his  subsequent  history  showed  him  to  have  deserved. 
The  partiality  of  Gustavus  for  his  son  John 

Patrimonies     .     .    .  .  .  .  .  .  . 

assigned  to  led  him  to  make  over  to  him,  at  the  close 
the  Sons  of    0f  j-he  successful  war  with  Russia,  the  prov- 

Gustavns.         .  1         1  1  • 

ince  of  r  inland  as  his  permanent  patrimony. 
He  was  induced  to  take  this  step  no  doubt  in  part  by 
his  knowledge  of  the  violent  character  of  Eric,  and  his 
conviction  that  his  sons  would  receive  hard  measure 
from  him,  if  they  were  not  placed  in  positions  of  inde- 
pendence. Finland  was  altogether  the  largest  and 
most  important  province  of  the  kingdom.  As  a  treaty 
was  set  on  foot  for  the  marriage  of  John  with  a  Polish 
princess,  Eric  not  unnaturally  suspected  that  his  father 
was  preparing  to  set  him  aside  and  to  place  his  brother 
upon  the  throne.  He  therefore  demanded  that  to  him 
also  a  province  of  the  kingdom  should  be  assigned.    The 


The  Reformation  in  Sweden.  149 

king's  want  of  confidence  in  him  was  shown  by  the  fact 
that  he  demanded  that  he  should  take  a  solemn  oath 
not  to  engage  in  any  enterprise  against  him.     That  the 
king  was  led  into  this  fatal  policy  of  creating  his  sons 
dukes  of  such  extensive  provinces  of  his  kingdom,  as 
to  leave  but  a  mutilated  and  enfeebled  state  for  the 
government  of  the  king,  through  his  partiality  for  John 
and  his  distrust  of  Eric,  can  scarcely  be  doubted.     For 
when  he  had  taken  the  one  injudicious  step  of  giving 
to  John  so  large  a  patrimony,  it  was  evident  that  he 
could  withhold  a  similar  gift  from  his  other  sons  only  at 
the  risk  of  their  rebellion  and  civil  war.     Moreover  the 
same  reason  which  induced  him  to  take  this  step  in  the 
case  of  John  operated  with  equal  force  in  the  case  of  his 
other  sons.     He  therefore  appointed  Eric  to  be  Duke 
of  Calmar;  Magnus  to  be  Duke  of  East  Gothland;  and 
Charles,  yet  a  youth,  to  be  Duke  of  Suthermanland. 
But  the  conduct  of  Eric  in  his  government  of  Calmar 
gave  the  king  great  uneasiness.     He  was  surrounded 
with  those  selfish  flatterers  who  always  gather  about 
and  foster  the  vices  of  an  heir  to  a  throne  with  a  view 
to  their  own  subsequent  advancement.     They  excited 
in  his  mind  suspicions  of  the  designs  of  his  father  and 
jealousy  of  his  brother  John.     Eric  set  spies  about  his 
father,  and  the  old  king's  lamentations  over  the  irreg- 
ularities of  his  son,  and  the  painful  misgivings  which 
he  expressed  as  to  the  future  of  the  kingdom,  were 
reported  and  exaggerated  to  Eric,  and  led  to  angry 
and  mutual  reproaches.    Indeed,  so  distressed  was  Gus- 
tavus  with  the  unfilial  conduct,  and  the  suspicious  meas- 
ures, and  the  extravagant  and  dissipated  life  of  Eric, 
that  he  seriously  meditated  committing  him  to  prison 
and  declaring  Duke  John  heir  to  the  throne.     But  after 
much  hesitation   he   finally,  in  his  will,  assigned   the 


150  The  Reformation  in  Sweden. 

throne  to  Eric,  and  the  three  provinces  already  men- 
tioned to  his  three  younger  sons. 

It  was  inevitable  that  such  an  arrangement 
betweenEric  as  that  of  Gustavus's  should  lead  to  differences 
and     the    anci   dissensions.     They  were   all  the   more 

Dukes.  . 

certain  to  take  place,  that  there  were  no 
definitions  of  the  power  of  the  king  on  the  one  hand, 
and  the  privileges  of  the  dukes  on  the  other.  With  Mag- 
nus and  Charles  these  collisions  were  less  likely  to  occur; 
because  Charles  was  yet  a  minor,  and  not  in  possession 
of  his  dukedom;  and  Magnus,  though  violent  in  temper, 
was  so  weak  in  mind  as  to  be  readily  controlled  by  Eric. 
But  immediately  on  the  death  of  Gustavus  John  wrote 
to  his  brother  regarding  the  fulfillment  of  the  provisions 
of  their  father's  will.  "It  had  been  sufficiently  known," 
he  wrote,  ''how  assiduous  and  industrious  their  departed 
father  had  been  in  gathering  substance  for  his  children; 
yet  was  there  in  his  last  will  nothing  determined,  either 
in  respect  to  the  wealth  he  had  left  in  cash  or  mov- 
ables, or  his  many  desirable  estates,  which  now  were 
their  rightful  heritage,  though  the  deceased  king  had 
allowed  these  estates  to  flow  into  the  treasury  of  the 
realm;  he  hoped  that  all  this  would  now  turn  out  to 
their  common  advantage." 

Eric  evaded  a  reply  to  these  suggestions,  and  pre- 
pared to  bring  Duke  John  and  his  patrimony  under  his 
direct  control.  No  sooner  was  Gustavus  dead  than 
Eric  dispatched  a  messenger  to  Finland,  to  secure  its 
pledge  of  allegiance  to  his  authority.  The  messenger 
was  secretly  dispatched;  but  the  knowledge  of  it  was 
almost  immediately  conveyed  to  Duke  John.  He 
therefore  immediately  dispatched  another  messenger 
who  was  to  ride  night  and  day  with  peremptory  orders 
to  the  governor  of  Abo  not  to  allow  the  messenger 


The   Reformation  in  Sweden.  151 

of  Eiic  to  fulfill  his  errand.  The  Duke  was  successful  in 
baffling:  the  king  on  this  occasion;  but  it  was  not  long 
before  the  latter  accomplished  his  object  much  more 
thoroughly  than  he  could  have  done  by  his  mere  per- 
sonal command.  In  the  Diet  of  Arboga  in  1561  the 
Estates,  at  the  suggestion  of  Eric,  passed  a  decree  which 
precisely  defined  the  rights  of  the  king  over  the  dukes, 
and  designated  the  limitations  of  their  authority.  The 
dukes  were  compelled  to  submit  to  the  conditions  thus 
imposed,  though  they  protested  that  many  of  the  pro- 
visions of  the  act  covered  traps  and  snares  of  which  the 
king  might  at  any  time  take  advantage  for  their  de- 
struction. 

Those  conditions  are  stated  in  full  in  Puffendorf's  His- 
tory of  Sweden ;  and  they  are  such  as  placed  the  brothers 
in  absolute  subjection  to  the  king.  If  either  of  them 
should  plot  against  the  king's  government  or  life  he 
should  forfeit  his  right  of  succession  to  the  throne.  If 
any  of  the  subjects  of  the  principalities  should  offend 
the  king,  his  officers  could  seize  upon  them  and  they 
should  be  tried  by  the  king's  courts.  Neither  of  the 
princes  should  come  to  the  court  with  more  than  one 
hundred  men.  They  should  not  engage  in  war  without 
his  consent;  nor  coin  money;  nor  establish  bishoprics. 
These  were  the  main  provisions  established  by  the  diet; 
but  there  were  many  minor  ones  which  must  have  been 
offensive  to  the  sense  of  dignity  and  personal  honor  on 
the  part  of  the  princes.  Their  real  and  intended  pur- 
port was  to  defeat  the  purposes  for  which  Gustavus 
had  bestowed  upon  them  the  government  of  the  princi- 
palities. 

No  less  successful  was  Eric  in  his  plan  to  deprive 
his  brothers  of  a  share  in  the  possessions  of  their  father. 
The  dukes  were  limited  to  those  possessions  which 


152  The  Reformation  in  Sweden. 

had  been  bestowed  upon  them  by  their  father  previous 
to  his  death.  When  the  estates  were  to  be  divided 
the  king  declared  "  that  his  father  had  unjustly  regarded 
the  land  taken  back  from  churches  and  convents  as 
private  property.  They  had  been  given  away  by  former 
kings;  therefore  when  restored  at  the  perquisition  were 
to  be  considered  as  belonging  to  the  crown  and  not  to 
the  king;  for  which  reason  the  royal  children  could 
have  no  right  to  them  by  inheritance.  He  therefore 
appropriated  these  estates  to  himself  as  belonging  to 
the  crown." 

Thus  early  did  the  king  inflame  the  animosity  of  his 
brothers  by  completely  baffling  their  hopes,  depriving 
them  of  their  rights,  and  inflicting  upon  them  grievous 
wrongs. 

Coronation  ^he  coronation  of  Eric  was  performed  with 
and  Policy  a  splendor  hitherto  unknown  in  Sweden.  He 
of  King  nc.  expencjed  large  sums  from  the  great  treasure 
left  by  Gustavus  in  securing  from  Holland  a  royal  par- 
aphernalia equal  in  magnificence  and  expense  to  that 
of  the  greatest  monarchs  in  Europe.  Feeling  that  his 
supremacy  and  superiority  as  king  was  not  a  little 
diminished  by  the  fact  that  the  dukes,  his  brothers,  in 
their  respective  governments,  occupied  an  independent 
position,  and  seemed  rather  his  rivals  than  his  lieges, 
Eric  determined  to  create  a  small  body  of  higher 
nobility  who  should  approach  to  the  dukes  in  rank  and 
honor;  and  thus  by  diminishing  the  relative  superiority 
of  the  dukes  to  all  his  other  subjects,  would  place  him- 
self in  a  position  conspicuously  pre-eminent  above  them 
all.  This  new  order  of  nobility  he  called  counts.  Only 
three  members  of  the  oldest  and  most  famous  nobility 
received  this  title.  The  object  of  Eric  was  apparent, 
and  evidently  intended  to  be  so,  from  the  method  in 


The  Reformation  in  Sweden.  153 

which  this  new  honor  was  conferred.  As  Eric  placed 
the  coronets  upon  the  heads  of  the  new  counts  the 
proclamation  of  the  herald  contained  these  sentences: 
"Let  it  be  known  to  all  that  there  is  one  king  in  the  king- 
dom of  Sweden  and  Gothland,  whom  God  has  given  us 
and  whom  we  see  before  our  eyes;  the  most  high  and 
puissant  prince  and  lord,  Eric  XIV.;  and  though  several 
crowns  glitter  before  your  eyes,  let  none  take  it  as  if 
there  were  more  than  one  royal  crown;  for,  according 
to  royal  custom,  royal  majesty  has  permitted  each  rank, 
counts  and  barons  as  well  as  dukes,  to  be  honored  by 
their  marks  of  distinction.  But  the  king  of  Sweden, 
of  the  Goths  and  Vandals,  is  one  and  no  more."  The 
meaning  of  all  this  is  evident  enough.  The  king  re- 
minds the  dukes  that  they,  equally  with  counts  and 
barons,  depend  upon  him,  notwithstanding  the  assign- 
ment of  their  patrimonies  by  Gustavus,  for  their  lord- 
ships and  honors.  It  involves  the  claim  that  they  hold 
their  positions  by  his  tacit  renewal  of  their  father's  gift; 
and  that  they  are  to  govern  their  states  in  subordina- 
tion to  him. 

The  creation  of  this  new  order  of  nobility, 
Measures  to  and  other  measures  adopted  to  strengthen 
strengthen    the  crown,  prove  that  if  Eric  had  possessed 

steadiness  and  uprightness  of  character,  his 
political  ability  and  skill  would  have  enabled  him  to 
have  made  his  reign  prosperous  and  renowned.  His 
sagacity  was  exhibited  by  the  establishment  of  a  su- 
preme court — a  court  of  appeals  from  the  courts  of  the 
several  provinces;  which  was  also  a  court  of  supreme 
original  jurisdiction  in  every  part  of  the  kingdom.  We 
have  seen  that  when  Sweden  was  subject  to  Denmark 
the  effect  of  the  non-residence  of  the  king,  and  the  ap- 
pointment of  governors  for  the  provinces,  was  to  give 


154  The  Reformation  in  Sweden. 

great  power  to  those  governors,  and  to  break  up  the 
kingdom  into  several  almost  independent  principalities. 
Under  these  circumstances  a  real,  organic  unity  was 
impossible.  No  measure  could  have  been  better  de- 
vised to  give  a  practical  unity  to  the  kingdom,  and  to 
secure  the  centralization  of  authority  in  the  crown, 
than  the  institution  of  this  supreme  court. 

Other  salutary  enactments  signalize  the  outset  of 
the  reign  of  Eric.  A  regulation  has  prevailed  in  Sweden 
from  the  time  of  Gustavus  to  the  present,  that  the 
farmers  and  residents  upon  the  roads  were  to  furnish 
horses  and  entertainment  for  travelers  at  prices  fixed  by 
government.  This  regulation  bore  hard  upon  the  rural 
population  and  the  little  villages  of  Sweden;  and  one 
of  the  earliest  regulations  of  Eric  was  that  there  should 
be  taverns  or  guest  houses  established  along  the  post- 
roads  to  relieve  the  people  from  the  obligation  to  en- 
tertain travelers.  He  also  abolished  several  fast  days, 
and  some  superstitious  ceremonies  still  observed  in  the 
celebration  of  the  Lord's  Supper.  He  also  proclaimed 
that  he  threw  open  his  kingdom  to  all  oppressed  and 
persecuted  Protestants.  This  brought  many  Calvinists 
into  his  kingdom;  and  Eric  himself  was  known  to  prefer 
the  Reformed  to  the  Lutheran  Church. 

Eric  was  just  about  to  set  off  for  England 

Kins;  Eric's  .  J^..      .     ti    .  .  ,  .     ;r    , 

variousMat-    and  woo  Elizabeth  in  person  when  his  father 

rim oni a i   died.     In  I  S^i  he  wrote  to  his  envoy  in  Lon- 

bchemes.  1111  •  11  '11 

don  that  he  had  again  resolved  to  make  the 
journey  to  England.  Since  his  first  proposals  he  had 
become  a  king  and  she  queen  of  England,  but  the  prob- 
ability of  her  accepting  him  now  wras  less  even  than  it 
was  before.  Most  extravagant  were  the  preparations 
which  he  made  for  the  journey.  For  his  own  display 
on  his  arrival  in  England  he  had  sent  on  a  company  "of 


The  Reformation  in  Sweden.  155 

pearl  broiderers,  tailors  and  others."  As  a  present  to 
the  queen  he  had  forwarded  eighteen  piebald  horses  and 
several  chests  of  uncoined  gold  and  silver.  He  embarked 
in  a  fleet  from  Effsborg;  but  was  compelled  to  put  back 
by  a  violent  storm  and  did  not  again  resume  the  jour- 
ney. But  while  his  envoy  was  prosecuting  his  hopeless 
suit  with  Elizabeth  he  also  sent  a  secret  agent  to  Scot- 
land, with  an  offer  of  his  hand  to  Mary  Queen  of  Scots. 
While  these  two  suits  were  urged  at  the  same  time,  he 
became  so  enraged  with  the  Earl  of  Leicester,  on  hear- 
ing that  he  was  the  favorite  lover  of  the  queen,  that 
he  directed  his  envoy  to  bribe  the  English  Council 
with  money,  and  to  secure  the  assassination  of  the 
earl.  At  the  same  time  he  makes  an  offer  to  Renata 
of  Lorraine  and  to  Christina,  daughter  of  the  Landgrave 
of  Hesse.  With  six  strings  to  his  bow,  and  all  of  them 
golden,  it  seemed  as  if  he  might  soon  secure  a  bride. 
But,  notwithstandinghis  lavish  expenditure,  there  seems 
to  have  been  under  the  elaborate  courtesies  with  which 
his  proposals  were  received  and  considered,  a  misgiv- 
ing and  indisposition  to  yield  consent,  which  may  per- 
haps have  arisen  from  rumors  of  his  extravagant,  capri- 
cious, and  cruel  character. 
^       n/r        The  marriage  of  Duke  John  with  a  Polish 

The     Mar-  ■,  i 

riage  of  princess  became  the  cause  or  the  occasion 
Duke  John.  Qf  t^t  anti-reformation  which  was  under- 
taken by  him  when  he  became  king,  and  which  was 
resisted  and  at  length  put  down  by  his  brother  Charles. 
Eric  had  obtained  a  foothold  in  Livonia,  on  the  south- 
ern shore  of  the  Gulf  of  Finland;  and  as  it  was  likely 
to  be  contested  by  Poland,  he  was  at  first  reluctant  to 
sanction  Duke  John's  application  for  the  hand  of  Cath- 
erine Jagellonica,  sister  of  Sigismund,  King  of  Poland. 
He  was  however  at  length  persuaded  to  give  his  con- 


156  The  Reformation  in  Sweden. 

sent.  But  the  project  was  embarrassed  and  almost 
broken  up  by  the  vascillation  of  both  the  kings,  Sigis- 
mund  and  Eric.  King  Sigismund  insisted  that  as  his 
sister  Anna  was  the  older  she  should  be  the  bride ;  but  the 
duke  much  preferred  Catherine,  and  Catherine  was  sin- 
cerely attached  to  the  duke.  King  Eric  after  he  had 
given  his  consent  revoked  it  and  recalled  his  brother. 
The  duke  hesitated  and  prepared  to  return,  but  finally 
concluded  to  disobey  the  king.  The  wedding  was 
celebrated  in  secret  and  Duke  John  and  his  bride  re- 
ceived, on  their  journey  to  Abo,  ominous  intimations 
of  the  displeasure  of  the  king.  Immediately  on  his 
arrival  he  sent  to  invite  the  king  to  his  wedding  fes- 
tivities. "  But,"  says  an  historian  of  these  events,  "an- 
other feast  was  waiting  him." 

The  suspicion  and  enmity  of  Eric  against 
tween  King  his  brother  John  was  greatly  aggravated  by 
Eric    and   his  marriage  with  the  Polish  princess.     His 

Duke  "John.  .  .  ..        11111.  1 

astrological  studies  had  led  him  to  the  con- 
clusion that  a  light-haired  man  would  deprive  him  of 
his  throne;  and  this  he  thought  pointed  to  his  brother. 
His  pernicious  counselor  Goran  Persson  persuaded  him 
that  this  marriage  was  the  seal  of  a  compact  between 
Duke  John  against  himself;  and  for  the  establishment  of 
John  and  Sigismund  upon  the  throne,  and  the  introduc- 
tion of  the  Roman  religion  into  Sweden.  The  duke  be- 
came exasperated  by  the  evident  enmity  of  the  king;  and, 
throwing  aside  all  prudence  and  reserve,  he  denounced 
his  brother  at  a  meeting  of  the  States  of  Finland,  with 
a  violence  which  could  have  no  other  result  than  open 
war,  and  which  seemed  to  countenance  the  report  that 
he  had  determined  upon  a  struggle  with  his  brother 
for  the  throne.  He  accused  Eric  of  being  angry  be- 
cause Catherine  had  rejected  his  suit    and  accepted 


The  Reformation  in  Sweden.  157 

himself.  Eric  he  said  had  no  right  to  Livonia — which 
belonged  to  the  King  of  Poland.  He  despised  the  old 
and  wise  senators  to  whom  his  father  was  wont  to  re- 
sort for  counsel,  and  was  now  under  the  sway  of  low 
and  cunning  adventurers,  who  were  bringing  ruin  upon 
the  kingdom.  He  had  made  so  many  enemies  that 
he  could  neither  defend  his  own  dominions  nor  protect 
Finland  from  the  threatened  inroads  of  the  Russians. 
He  therefore  appealed  to  the  Fins  to  aid  him  against 
Eric;  and  declared  that  he  had  made  a  marriage  with 
a  sister  of  the  king  of  Poland  in  order  that  by  his  aid 
he  might  help  his  unhappy  country.  This  certainly 
looked  like  a  purpose  of  revolt,  and  led  to  the  inevi- 
table inference  that  John  sought  to  supplant  his 
brother  upon  the  throne. 

Trial,  Con-  The  king  did  not  delay  to  take  measures 
demnation  to  defeat  his  brother's  schemes.  Witnesses 
of  Duke  against  John  were  everywhere  sought  for; 
John.  ancj  hjg  servants  were  examined  by  torture. 

One  of  them,  under  the  agony  which  he  suffered,  tes- 
tified that  "John's  intention  was  to  remove  Eric  from 
the  throne."  This  was  claimed  to  be  perfectly  satis- 
factory testimony.  The  States  were  summoned,  the 
duke  tried  and  condemned  to  death,  as  guilty  of  high 
treason.  The  same  sentence  was  passed  on  his  par- 
tisans. Those  of  them  who  could  then  be  secured 
were  beheaded.  The  sentence  of  the  States  was  dis- 
patched to  Abo  by  Hogenskild  Bijelke,  who  was  ac- 
companied with  a  considerable  military  force.  The 
offer  was  made  to  John,  in  the  king's  name,  that  if  he 
would  surrender  without  resistance  his  life  should  be 
spared,  though  he  would  be  kept  in  perpetual  impris- 
onment. The  duke  preferred  to  defend  himself,  and 
stood  a  siege  for   two   months,   in   the   hope   that   he 


158  The  Reformation  in  Sweden. 

would  be  relieved  by  Poland.  After  their  capture  the 
duke  and  duchess  were  embarked  upon  Eric's  fleet 
and  carried  to  Sweden.  At  Waxholm,  Persson  went 
into  the  vessel  which  conveyed  the  duke,  and  made  a 
long  speech  to  him  concerning  his  guilt  and  the  proofs 
upon  which  his  condemnation  was  pronounced.  He 
then  presented  himself  to  the  duchess,  and  announced 
to  her  that  she  would  be  permitted,  if  she  desired,  to 
live  at  one  of  the  king's  castles,  with  her  ladies  and  a 
suitable  maintenance;  or  that  if  she  wished  to  accom- 
pany the  duke  to  prison  she  would  be  permitted  to  do 
so,  but  would  be  allowed  to  take  but  two  of  her  maids 
with  her.  The  duchess,  who  proved  herself  at  this  time, 
and  subsequently,  to  be  a  woman  of  noble  character, 
drew  off  from  her  finger  the  ring  of  her  betrothal,  and 
held  it  up  to  Persson,  saying,  "Read  what  stands  there!" 
The  motto  of  the  ring  was  Nemo  nisi  mors.  "  I  will 
abide  by  it,"  exclaimed  the  duchess,  and  she  did  so. 
The  Duke's  ^ie  duke  was  conveyed  to  the  castle  of 
Imprison-  Gripsholm  not  far  from  Stockholm.  More 
than  a  hundred  of  his  dependents  and  par- 
tisans were  beheaded.  Their  bodies  were  exposed, 
some  nailed  to  gibbets,  and  some  left  upon  the  rocks 
to  be  devoured  by  animals  and  birds.  The  old  horrors 
of  the  days  of  the  tyrant  Christian  seemed  about  to  be 
renewed.  What  was  to  be  the  fate  of  John  was  yet 
undetermined.  Eric  had  promised  that  his  life  should 
be  saved  if  he  would  surrender;  but  the  condition 
seemed  to  imply  that  it  would  be  forfeited  if  he  should 
resist.  The  king  had  kept  himself  at  a  distance,  on  the 
Danish  frontier,  where  he  was  making  preparations  for 
war,  while  these  frightful  scenes  were  in  progress.  The 
brothers  and  sisters  and  all  the  relatives  of  the  duke 
pleaded  with  Eric  for  his  life,  but  received  no  hope  from 


The  Reformation  in  Sweden.  159 

his  answers.  And  yet  he  had  not  fully  made  up  his 
mind.  On  the  one  hand  Persson  advised  the  duke's 
death,  and  on  the  other  hand  it  was  represented  to 
him  that  such  a  proceeding  would  make  enemies  of 
all  his  kin  and  awaken  sympathy  and  indignation 
among  the  people.  After  much  vascillation  the  king 
decided  that  his  life  should  be  spared,  but  that  he 
should  suffer  perpetual  imprisonment.  He  was  treated 
in  prison  with  mildness  and  respect.  The  castle  in 
which  they  were  confined  had  a  beautiful  outlook  upon 
the  fine  bay  of  Gripsholm  and  the  surrounding  country; 
and  the  prisoners  were  allowed  books  and  writing 
materials  and  musical  instruments;  and  the  duchess 
was  allowed  with  an  escort  to  walk  in  the  gardens  of 
the  castle. 

The  insan  *  Z0VY  tne  account  of  the  causes  and  mani- 
ity  of  Duke  festations  of  the  insanity  of  Duke  Magnus 
Magnus.  from  the  picturesque  pages  of  the  historian 
Freyxell.  "When  the  death-warrant  of  Duke  John 
had  been  made  out  the  signature  of  Duke  Magnus 
was  necessary  for  its  completion;  and  though  weak 
and  wavering  of  character  it  proved  a  most  arduous 
undertaking  to  persuade  him.  Goran  Persson,  Bijekle 
and  Beurreus  traveled  to  and  fro  on  this  commission; 
they  flattered  and  caressed  the  weak  prince;  Eric  at 
the  Diet  caused  the  order  of  succession  to  be  removed 
from  John  to  Magnus;  he  appointed  a  rich  and  mag- 
nificent court  for  him;  and  flattered  him  with  the  hope 
of  the  lovely  Mary  Stuart,  to  whom  several  embassies 
were  sent  on  this  account.  Thus  seduced  and  stormed 
on  every  side  Magnus  at  length  gave  way;  but  from 
that  day  forward  he  never  enjoyed  a  happy  hour.  He  was 
consumed  by  continual  remorse  and  looked  upon  him- 
self as  a  fratricide.     His  mind  was   unequal  to  these 


160  The  Reformation  in  Sweden. 

tortures  and  they  made  him  at  last  insane.  During- 
this  time  he  lived  in  Kongsbro  in  East  Gothland,  where 
the  Motala  River  runs  into  Lake  Roxen.  There  he  often 
fancied  that  he  saw  a  fair  water  nymph  raise  herself 
from  the  waves,  and  begin  a  song  so  sweet  that  he  is 
said  to  have  thrown  himself  from  the  lofty  turret  into 
the  midst  of  the  lake.  He  was  fortunately  uninjured 
and  the  guardians  got  him  up  again.  This  incident 
has  given  rise  to  a  song  which  has  been  sung  all  over 
Sweden;  its  version,  however,  says  that  the  water- 
nymph  had  frenzied  Magnus  by  her  sorcery,  as  a  pun- 
ishment for  his  not  choosing  to  dwell  with  her.  An- 
other reason  was  given  by  the  Jesuit  Possevinus,  who 
was  in  Sweden  at  a  later  period.  He  affirmed  that 
Magnus  had  been  struck  with  madness  because  he 
attempted  to  drive  out  the  nuns  from  the  convent 
of  Wadstena.  The  unfortunate  prince  remained  in 
this  lamentable  condition  the  rest  of  his  life,  or  forty- 
two  years  more.  He  was  buried  in  the  Church  of 
Wadstena." 

Eric's  Ad  -Durin§"  t^ie  Peri°d  of  three  years  and  more 
ministration  which  follow  the  imprisonment  of  John  the 
of  the  King-  faults  of  Eric  were  more  and  more  developed, 
and  the  condition  of  the  kingdom  became 
constantly  more  deplorable.  His  government  was  that 
of  a  suspicious  and  cruel  tyrant  who  offered  large  re- 
wards to  informers.  A  court,  called  the  Royal  Court, 
was  established,  in  which  the  doctrine  of  constructive 
or  inferential  treason,  deduced  from  the  most  trivial 
incidents  and  expressions,  led  to  the  condemnation 
and  death  of  many  innocent  persons.  A  war  with 
Denmark  and  one  with  Norway,  carried  on  with  alter- 
nate disaster  and  success  during  these  years,  but  with 
no  solid  ultimate  advantages,  exhausted  the  resources 


The  Reformation  in  Sweden.  161 

of  the  State,  and  led  to  merciless  conscriptions.  When 
his  measures  were  resisted  or  appealed  from,  in  any 
portion  of  the  country,  the  king-  visited  those  who 
presumed  to  remonstrate  and  object  with  a  ferocity 
of  revenge  which  it  is  scarce  an  exaggeration  to  des- 
ignate as  fiendish.  In  the  few  years  that  had  elapsed 
since  the  death  of  Gustavus  it  seemed  as  if  all  that  he 
had  accomplished,  with  so  much  labor  through  many 
years,  for  the  liberty  and  prosperity  of  Sweden  had 
been  undone;  and  that  the  unhappy  country  was  suf- 
fering again  all  the  evils  which  it  experienced  under 
Christian,  with  the  aggravation  that  they  were  inflicted 
by  a  native  king,  and  that  king  the  son  of  the  honored 
liberator  and  father  of  their  country. 

But  while  the  king's  general  policy  was  ruin- 
merdo/the  ing  tne  country  and  could  not  have  been 
Noble  Fam-  tolerated  many  years,  it  was  his  insane  treat- 
ment of  the  Stures  and  other  great  families 
that  was  the  immediate  occasion  of  the  measures  which 
led  to  his  overthrow.  The  Stures  were  the  most  emi- 
nent and  worthy  and  beloved  of  all  the  great  houses  in 
Sweden.  The  head  of  the  family,  bearing  the  old  his- 
toric name  of  Swante  Sture,  associated  with  the  heroic 
period  of  Sweden's  struggle  for  emancipation  from 
Denmark,  was  a  venerable  and  honorable  old  man, 
the  father  of  a  group  of  sons  whose  character  sus- 
tained the  well-won  reputation  of  the  house.  Nils  or 
Nicholas,  the  eldest  son,  was  distinguished  for  his 
beauty  and  learning  and  accomplishments,  and  greatly 
beloved  for  his  manliness  and  amiability.  Because  of 
his  high  reputation,  connected  with  the  fact  that  he 
had  light  hair,  so  light  as  to  be  almost  white,  Eric  con- 
ceived a  hatred  and  dread  of  him  which  it  was  impossible 
for  him  to  conceal.    The  prophecy  of  the  stars  was  ever 


162  The  Reformation  in  Sweden. 

haunting  him.  "That  white  head,"  he  said,  "will  bring 
me  mischief  in  the  end."  Nils  left  the  court  in  conse- 
quence of  this  evident  hatred  and  suspicion,  and  joined 
the  army.  But  even  there  he  was  surrounded  by  spies, 
and  subjected  falsely  to  the  charge  of  having  so  languidly 
conducted  a  military  siege  as  to  prove  that  he  had  an 
understanding  with  the  enemy.  He  was  recalled  to 
the  court  and  received  by  the  king  with  feigned  kind- 
ness; but  after  three  days'  residence  in  the  capital  he 
was  arrested  by  Persson  and  proclaimed  a  traitor  by 
heralds  riding  through  the  streets.  He  was  then 
offered  the  alternative  of  a  trial  by  the  criminal  court 
with  closed  doors,  or  of  being  led  through  the  streets 
mounted  on  a  cart-horse  and  with  a  crown  of  straw,  to 
symbolize  his  alleged  aspirations  to  the  throne.  He 
chose  to  be  tried,  and  was  condemned  to  death  and  to 
the  confiscation  of  his  property,  unless  the  king  should 
extend  to  him  his  pardon.  Eric's  so-called  clemency 
commuted  his  punishment  to  a  degrading  procession. 
It  was  carried  out  with  every  aggravation  of  insult  and 
humiliation  which  the  malice  of  Persson  could  invent. 

But  the  effect  of  this  cruel  indignity  on  the  army 
and  the  people  was  such  as  to  warn  the  king  to  retrace 
his  steps,  if  he  would  not  himself  be  the  instrument  of 
advancing  his  supposed  rival  to  the  throne.  Scarcely 
a  week  had  elapsed  when  the  king  sent  a  messenger 
to  Nils  desiring  him  to  proceed  to  Lotringen  as  em- 
bassador for  the  hand  of  the  Princess  Renata.  He 
answered  "  that  it  was  his  duty  to  obey  the  king's 
command,  but  he  thought  that  such  a  disgraced  and 
dishonored  man  was  little  fitted  to  be  a  suitor  in  the 
king's  name."  Eric  replied  that  "  the  procession  had 
taken  place  by  the  influence  of  evil  men,  and  that  he 
would  now  become   a   gracious  master  to   him."     No 


The   Reformation  in  Sweden.  163 

doubt  Nils  Sture  was  glad  to  escape  from  the  kingdom; 
and  he  accepted  the  commission.  He  wrote  to  his 
parents:  "I  drank  a  draught  at  Stockholm  which  has 
crushed  sense,  joy,  and  all  my  welfare*  in  this  world; 
but  I  hope  one  day  to  be  able  to  defend  myself  with 
other  than  letter  and  seal." 

„     J    Nothing  certainly  could  have  been  more  cal- 

An     alleged  &  J  . 

Conspiracy  culated  to  bring  about  a  conspiracy  than 
againstErk.  the  infatuated  proceedings  of  the  king.  But 
the  historians  of  Sweden  deny  that  there  was  any 
organized  conspiracy.  Dissatisfaction,  murmurs  and 
threats  of  revenge  were  no  doubt  heard  in  the  house- 
holds of  Eric's  victims.  And  those  victims  multiplied 
every  day.  He  felt  that  the  outrage  upon  the  Stures 
never  could  be  forgiven.  He  lived  in  constant  fever 
of  alarm,  augmented  his  body-guard,  and  multiplied 
his  spies.  Reports  of  examinations  by  torture  and  of 
executions  by  night  spread  terror  among  the  people. 
The  most  trivial  and  innocent  acts  were  construed  by 
his -distempered  fancy  into  evidences  of  a  design  to 
murder  him.  The  whole  force  and  activity  of  the 
government  was  employed  and  absorbed  in  the  search 
for  proofs  of  treason.  A  meeting  of  the  States  was 
called  at  Swartsoe  where  the  king  was  then  sojourning. 
The  nobles  who  were  his  intended  victims,  unconscious 
of  their  coming  doom, were  summoned  to  the  Diet.  A 
few  of  those  who  were  to  be  accused,  who  were  the 
most  eminent  men  in  the  kingdom,  were  arrested,  as 
also  the  mother  of  the  Stures.  When  Swante  Sture, 
coming  late  to  the  council,  heard  of  their  arrest,  he  took 
the  sacrament  at  a  small  church  near  Swartsoe,  and 
prepared  his  mind  for  the  worst.  Upon  the  arrest 
of  the  nobles  the  king  announced  that  the  Diet  would 
be  transferred  to  Upsala,  and  its  numbers  increased, 


164  The  Reformation  in  Sweden. 

in  order  that  there  might  be  a  trial  of  the  accused 
suited  to  their  rank  and  dignity.  The  detestation  and 
horror  with  which  Eric  was  regarded  appears  from  the 
fact  that  when  he  reached  the  wharf,  and  proceeded  to 
the  castle  at  Upsala,  he  was  deserted  by  all  his  ser- 
vants and  arrived  alone  and  on  foot  and  was  welcomed 
only  by  the  archbishop,  Lawrence  Peterson,  and  the 
chancellor,  Nicholas  Gillenstierna. 

The  Diet  was  held  on  the  19th  of  May,  1567.  Eric 
had  been  drinking  excessively  on  the  preceding  day 
and  the  speech  which  he  had  prepared  could  not  be 
found,  and  had  been  abstracted,  as  is  supposed,  by  Pers- 
son,  in  the  hope  that  in  the  excitement  of  an  extem- 
porary discourse,  with  shattered  nerves,  he  would  speak 
with  more  violence  than  he  would  from  a  carefully  writ- 
ten address.  They  were  not  disappointed.  In  a  ve- 
hement harangue  he  ran  into  invectives  against  Nils 
Sture,  and  accused  him  of  accumulating  large  treasure 
with  a  view  to  a  revolutionary  movement.  The  speech 
was  received  with  loud  murmurs  of  dissent,  which  be- 
came so  alarming  that  the  Diet  was  adjourned.  Eric 
did  not  again  personally  appear  in  it.  But  the  prose- 
cution of  the  accused  lords  was  pushed  forward  by 
Persson. 

The  proofs  adduced  to  convict  the  accused  of  a  con- 
spiracy to  dethrone  the  king  were  vague  and  scanty. 
They  were  inferences  from  expressions  of  indignation 
against  the  treatment  of  Nils  Sture  and  from  prophe- 
cies that  the  king  would  suffer  for  his  cruelty.  Only 
four  witnesses  came  forward  with  these  statements,  and 
two  of  these,  after  the  trial,  mutually  accused  each  other 
of  having  borne  false  witness.  Never  were  valuable 
lives  sacrificed  upon  such  flimsy  testimony.  It  is  a 
strong  evidence  of  the  state  of  feeling  among  the  peo- 


The  Reformation  in  Sweden.  165 

pie,  that  so  little  and  such  worthless  testimony  only 
could  be  procured.  Tyrants  can  generally  secure  any 
needful  amount  of  perjured  testimony.  But  it  is  also 
as  strong  an  evidence  of  the  subservience  of  diets  and 
legislatures  in  countries  where  all  honors  depend  upon 
a  king,  that  this  testimony  was  received  and  admitted 
to  be  true  and  sufficient  by  all  the  states,  or  orders,  ex- 
cept that  of  the  clergy  under  the  lead  of  their  intrepid 
archbishop,  Laurentius  Petri. 

The  Murder  The  events  which  followed  would  have  fur- 
oftheStures.  nished  materials  for  tragic  scenes,  in  the 
hands  of  Shakespeare,  equal  in  horror  to  those  de- 
picted in  Macbeth.  On  the  24th  of  May  Eric  pro- 
ceeded to  the  prison  where  the  lords  were  confined 
and  entering  the  cell  first  of  Sten  Lejonhufwud  and  af- 
terwards of  Swante  Sture  he  fell  upon  his  knees  be- 
fore them  begging  their  forgiveness  and  promising  them 
their  freedom.  It  is  impossible  to  know  whether  this 
was  mere  hypocritical  acting  or  remorse,  or  a  mixture 
of  both;  but  the  two  lords  were  not  slow  to  express 
their  full  forgiveness.  Eric  went  so  far,  in  his  humilia- 
tion, as  to  request  of  Swante  Sture  his  daughter's  hand 
in  marriage.  The  old  lord  replied  that  all  he  had  be- 
longed to  the  king.  At  that  moment  the  king  was 
advised  that  a  person  desired  to  deliver  to  him  a  mes- 
sage; and  on  going  without,  and  conversing  with  Peter 
Carlson,  the  Bishop  of  Calmar,  he  was  seen  to  return 
with  high  excitement  and  so  much  rapidity  that  his 
guards  could  not  keep  pace  with  him,  to  the  castle. 
The  news  had  just  arrived  that  Duke  John  had  escaped 
from  prison,  and  that  the  revolt  had  begun.  Whether 
the  conveyance  of  this  news  to  the  king  was  timed  at 
this  crisis  by  Persson  in  order  to  renew  the  king's  hate 
and  terror  of  the  imprisoned  lords  cannot  be  known; 


166  The  Reformation  in  Sweden. 

but  it  is  of  a  piece  with  all  Persson's  infernal  manage- 
ment of  the  king;  and  the  effect  which  Persson  desired 
was  produced.  The  infuriated  king  rushed  with  drawn 
dagger  to  the  castle  and  entered  the  cell  of  Nils  Sture. 
Lejonhufwud's  room  was  next  to  that  of  Nils  Sture  and 
divided  by  so  thin  a  partition  that  all  that  was  done  or 
said  in  one  room  was  heard  in  the  other.  Lejonhufwud 
(who  was  saved)  afterwards  related  that  shortly  before 
the  king's  arrival  Nils  had  sung  a  psalm,  and  had  then 
thrown  himself  on  his  bed  and  read  aloud  from  his 
Prayer  Book.  While  he  was  thus  lying,  the  king  en- 
tered the  cell  with  a  drawn  dagger  in  his  hand,  ex- 
claiming, "Art  thou  still  here,  thou  traitor?"  Herr 
Nils  sprang  from  his  bed,  threw  himself  on  his  knees, 
and  said,  "  Most  gracious  king,  I  am  not  a  traitor;  but 
I  have  faithfully  served  and  risked  my  life  for  your  ma- 
jesty ! "  But  the  king  answered  him  by  striking  him 
with  his  dagger  through  the  arm.  Nils  drew  it  out, 
wiped  off  the  blood,  kissed  the  handle,  and  returned  it 
to  the  king,  saying,  "  Good  my  lord,  spare  me;  I  have 
not  deserved  displeasure."  The  king  cried,  "  Hear  how 
that  villain  can  supplicate  for  himself."  One  of  the 
king's  guards,  seeing  what  was  the  desire  of  the  king, 
completed  the  murder  by  seven  wounds  through  his 
body. 

But  no  sooner  was  this  done  than  Eric  was  seized 
with  remorse  or  the  terror  which  in  such  a  heart  apes 
remorse.  He  rushed  to  Swante  Sture's  prison  and  threw 
himself  on  his  knees,  and  said:  "  Dear  friend,  for  God's 
sake  be  pleased  to  forgive  us  the  evil  which  we  have 
done  towards  you"!  The  old  lord  wept  bitterly,  and 
said:  "Most  gracious  king,  if  my  son  has  not  suffered 
damage  to  his  life,  I  will  forgive  your  majesty  with  all 
my  heart;  but  if  his  blood   has  been  shed   you  must 


The  Reformation  in  Sweden.  167 

answer  to  me  for  it  before  God."  "  Ah,"  said  Eric  leap- 
ing up,  "you  will  never  forgive  us;  therefore  you  shall 
share  their  fate."  Thereupon  he  rushed  out,  ordered 
the  watch  to  have  especial  care  of  the  prisoners,  and 
hurried  out  of  the  castle  followed  only  by  a  few  of  his 
guard.  He  was  beside  himself,  and  no  longer  appeared 
to  know  what  he  was  doing. 

Persson  and  his  party  now  felt  that  the  murder  of 
Nils  Sture  would  convince  the  king  that  no  other  course 
remained  but  the  execution  of  the  imprisoned  nobles. 
But  this  design  was  opposed  by  Buerreus,  the  old  tutor 
of  the  king.  Horrified  at  the  bloody  purpose  of  Pers- 
son, and  hoping  that  he  might  exert  some  influence 
with  a  pupil  who  had  continued  to  show  him  favor 
and  regard,  he  hastened  out  into  the  country  to  seek 
the  king.  He  found  him  wandering  wildly  in  a  field, 
and  begged  him  to  remember  his  royal  dignity  and 
return  to  the  castle.  Eric  refused.  Buerreus  also  on  his 
knees  implored  him  that  he  would  not  in  haste  order 
the  nobles  in  the  castle  to  be  killed.  Instead  of  an 
answer  Eric  struck  at  him  with  a  sword;  but  Buerreus 
avoided  the  blow.  "  Lame  that  rogue  for  me,"  cried 
Eric  to  his  guard.  Buerreus  then  turned  and  fled  for 
his  life;  but  the  same  guardsman  that  had  dispatched 
Nils  Sture,  Per  Williamjson,  sprung  after  him,  over- 
took him,  cut  off  a  calf  of  his  leg  and  dispatched  him 
with  his  halberd.  A  fit  fate  for  one  of  the  evil  advisers 
of  the  pupil  who  had  now  become  his  murderer.  After 
this  murder  the  king  sent  an  order  to  the  castle,  whether 
or  no  prompted  by  others  cannot  be  known,  that  all 
the  prisoners  should  be  executed  with  the  exception 
of  Herr  Stenbock.  And  then  escaping  from  his  guards 
he  went  deeper  into  the  woods  and  wildernesses,  and 
no  one  knew  what  had  become  of  him. 


i68  The  Reformation  in  Sweden. 

When  the  order  for  the  execution  came  the  Provost 
could  not  tell  which  Lord  Stenbock — for  there  were  two 
of  that  name — was  intended  to  be  excepted  by  the  king. 
He  went  to  consult  Persson,  whom  he  found  at  a  gam- 
bling table,  and  who  told  him  carelessly,  without  paus- 
ing in  his  game,  that  he  must  judge  for  himself.  The 
Provost,  in  his  doubt,  saved  the  life  of  both  the  lords; 
but  Swante  St'ure,  his  second  son  Eric,  his  kinsmen 
Abraham  Stenbock  and  Ivar  Ivarson,  were  executed. 
Thus  closes  this  chapter  amid  scenes  of  horror.  A  frantic 
king  wandering  in  the  woods,  and  four  of  the  best  and 
nighest  nobles  in  the  land  lying  murdered  in  the  court 
of  his  castle. 


CHAPTER    VIII. 

KING  ERIC'S  MADNESS,  IMPRISONMENT  AND  DEATH. 
—  DUKE  JOHN  BECOMES  KING  OF  SWEDEN,  AND 
HIS    SON   SIGISMUND   KING   OF   POLAND. 

The  Mad  T^O  days  elapsed  before  King  Eric  could 
nesso/King  JL  be  found.  He  was  discovered  at  last 
Eric'  in  the  parish  of  Odensala  in  peasant's  clothes, 

and  apparently  quite  out  of  his  mind.  When  he  was 
addressed  as  king  he  exclaimed,  "  Nils  Sture  is  admin- 
istrator of  Sweden  " !  He  had  not  eaten  or  slept  for 
several  days  and  could  not  be  persuaded  to  take  any 
thing  from  the  fear  of  poison,  until  his  mistress,  Karin 
Mansdotter,  prepared  and  administered  it  with  her  own 
hands.  When  he  awoke  after  a  brief  sleep  he  was  over- 
whelmed with  remorse  for  his  crime  and  terror  for  its 
consequences.  Or  rather  it  would  be  more  correct  to 
say,  in  view  of  his  subsequent  position,  that  his  terror 
put  on  the  seeming  of  remorse.  In  the  confusion  which 
ensued,  and  the  breaking  up  of  the  Diet,  the  government 
was  administered  by  the  council.  At  this  time  Eric 
was  unable  to  discharge  his  kingly  duties,  and  volun- 
teered abject  confessions  of  his  guilt — and  a  declaration 
of  the  innocence  of  the  murdered  lords.  He  also  dis- 
tributed great  sums  of  money  to  their  relatives,  and 
presents  to  the  members  of  his  estates.  The  king 
himself  called  this  afterwards  the  period  of  his  infirmity. 


170  The  Reformation  in  Sweden. 

How  far  his  madness  was  real — whether  it  was  as- 
sumed to  serve  as  a  screen  for  his  guilt — or  how  much 
method  there  was  in  his  madness,  if  he  were  really 
mad,  it  is  impossible  to  say.  It  seems  certain  from 
his  subsequent  defiant  mood,  in  which  he  vindicated 
and  gloried  in  this  deed  as  a  fine  stroke  of  kingcraft, 
that  it  left  no  wound  in  his  conscience.  On  the  one 
hand,  it  cannot  be  doubted  that  either  by  a  taint  in  his 
nature,  or  by  giving  himself  constantly  to  violent  ex- 
citement— to  the  indulgence  of  excessive  passions  of 
mind  and  body — he  often  acted  like  a  madman.  But, 
on  the  other  hand,  he  often  exhibited,  as  is  common 
in  all  stages  of  insanity,  a  degree  of  cunning  which 
seemed  to  prove  that  it  was  only  the  moral  nature  that 
was  deranged,  and  that  the  intellect  was  rather  sharp- 
ened than  blunted  by  the  loss  of  the  moral  sense.  An 
eye-witness  who  belonged  to  his  train,  whose  testimony 
is  quoted  by  Geijer,  says:  "  He  would  not  renounce  the 
government,  feigning  as  if  he  had  not  reason  until  he 
could  first  appease  the  nearest  kinsmen  of  the  deceased 
lords." 

Liberation  ^he  story  °f  Duke  John's  escape  from  prison 
of  Duke  had  no  foundation.  It  was  no  doubt  invented 
Join-  to  counteract  the  king's  sudden  access  of  re- 

morse in  which  he  promised  to  liberate  the  Stures  and 
besought  their  forgiveness.  But  the  friends  of  John 
now  availed  themselves  of  his  real  or  affected  mood  of 
penitence  to  urge  his  liberation.  Eric  was  readily  in- 
duced to  give  his  consent.  The  duke  promised  the 
faithful  allegiance  of  a  subject  to  his  king  and  pledged 
himself  to  recognize  the  sons  of  Karin  Mansdotter,  the 
mistress  whom  the  king  was  now  about  to  marry,  as  the 
heirs  to  the  throne.  The  8th  of  October  was  appointed 
for  the  meeting  of  the  brothers.    John,  with  his  wife  and 


The  Reformation  in  Sweden.  171 

family,  came  by  water  to  Swartsjo;  and  Eric  and  his 
suite  met  them  in  the  gateway.  Eric  threw  himself 
on  his  knees  before  John  calling  him  his  lord  and  sov- 
ereign. John  also  knelt,  replying  that  Eric  was  king; 
but  himself  a  poor  prisoner  who  implored  his  royal 
mercy.  They  continued  thus  upon  their  knees  op- 
posite to  each  other  until  their  stepmother,  Katrina 
Stenlvock,  came  up  and  begged  them  to  rise  and  not 
make  themselves  ridiculous  in  the  eyes  of  all  present. 
The  brothers  obeyed  and  proceeded  together  to  the 
castle.  But  there  was  awkwardness  and  constraint  in 
their  bearing  towards  each  other.  Eric  especially 
seemed  anxious  and  melancholy  and  maudlin,  re- 
peatedly imploring  the  duchess  and  his  little  nephew 
Sigismund  to  forgive  him  for  their  imprisonment,  and 
in  so  doing  he  again  fell  upon  his  knees.  The  duchess 
raised  him  and  sought  by  words  and  caresses  to  calm 
him — but  quite  in  vain.  He  left  the  room  in  a  state 
of  high  excitement.  John  wisely  feared  lest  this  real 
or  feigned  remorse  might  pass  again  into  real  or  feigned 
fury,  and  thought  it  advisable  to  retire  soon  to  Went- 
holm.  The  reconciliation  was  completed  by  correspon- 
dence, and  in  it  Eric  offered  to  resign  the  government 
to  John.  After  this  John  resided  chiefly  at  Arboga  and 
Eric  at  Stockholm;  and  thus  ended  the  year  1567.  In 
his  diary  the  king  had  written  over  this  date  these 
words:  "  The  most  unfortunate  year  for  King  Eric."  But 
he  was  destined  to  pass  many  other  years  still  more 
unfortunate. 
„  ,  For  some  time  after  this  reconciliation  with 

Kecovery  ana 

proceedings   Duke  John  the  mind  of  Eric  exhibited  fre- 

°J  ins  '  '  quent  confusion — feigned  or  real.  He  some- 
times wrote  and  spoke  as  if  he  considered  John  as  king 
and  himself  as  a  prisoner.     But  gradually  he  reached 


172  The  Reformation  in  Sweden. 

the  mental  position  he  had  occupied  previous  to  his  sup- 
posed discovery  of  the  conspiracy  of  the  Stures.  He  now 
announced  his  purpose  to  marry  Karin  Mansdotter,  and 
to  have  her  crowned,  as  she  subsequently  was,  queen  of 
Sweden.  The  war  with  Denmark  having  been  prose- 
cuted languidly,  and  to  the  great  loss  of  the  reputation 
of  the  Swedish  armies,  Eric  determined  to  carry  it  on  in 
person.  The  method  he  pursued  showed  the  essential 
frivolity  of  his  character,  and  his  love  of  extravagance 
and  display.  He  was  extremely  devoted  to  all  warlike 
ceremonialism  and  was  as  rigid  and  thorough  a  martinet 
in  discipline  and  drill,  as  he  was  incompetent  as  a  leader. 
His  mind  was  absorbed  at  this  time  in  getting  from  the 
capital  a  large  supply  of  red-colored  goose  feathers, 
and  squirrel  and  fox  tails,  for  the  new  uniforms  which 
he  devised,  as  well  as  wines  and  spices  and  raisins  and 
all  the  luxuries  of  his  life  in  the  palace  of  Stockholm. 
But  with  characteristic  caprice  he  soon  returned  to 
the  capital  and  celebrated  his  marriage  with  Karin 
Mansdotter  with  great  splendor.  But  so  distasteful 
was  this  proceeding  to  his  subjects,  that  those  who 
were  selected  to  be  knighted  on  that  occasion  could  with 
difficulty  be  persuaded  to  accept  the  doubtful  honor. 
Persson,  on  whom  the  sentence  of  death  had  been  pro- 
nounced in  the  Council  Chamber  of  Stockholm,  when 
the  king  was  in  his  mood  of  penitence,  and  to  whom 
had  been  brought  home  the  charge  of  having  directly 
intervened  for  the  execution  of  more  than  a  hundred 
and  twenty  citizens  and  nobles,  but  whom  the  king  had 
forgiven  and  restored  to  power,  resumed  his  old  influ- 
ence, and  was  still  the  evil  genius  of  the  king  and  the 
horror  and  bane  of  the  kingdom.  He  persuaded  the 
king  to  demand  from  those  on  whom,  in  his  hour  of 
madness,  he  had   lavished   excessive   gifts,  that   they 


The  Reformation  in  Sweden.  173 

should  be  returned.     At  the  same  time  he  put  forth  a 
proclamation  in  reference  to  the  aberration  of  his  mind 
and  his  proceedings  under  its  influence  in  the  preced- 
ing year,  in  which  he  made  his  servants  responsible  for 
the  crimes  which  he  had  himself  urged  on  against  the 
remonstrances  of  at  least  one  of  his  most  honored  coun- 
selors, Buerreus,  who  suffered  the  penalty  of  his  rash 
advice  by  the  brutal  murder  to  which  he  was  subjected 
by  the  order  of  the  king.     He  alleged  that  in  fear  of 
an  outbreak  of  revolt  he  had  put  to  death  Nicholas 
Sture,  who  was  rightly  condemned  for  his  proved  trea- 
son; but  his  servants  on  that  occasion,  against  his  own 
will,  had  cut  off  the  innocent  as  well  as  the  guilty.     He 
himself  had  fled  to  the  wilds  (and  this  aberration  is 
represented  as  if  it  were  the  consequence  of  the  guilt 
of  his  servants  and  not  of  his  own),  deserted  by  all, 
reckoning  himself  at  last  a  deposed  captive,  and  de- 
spairing in  this  condition,  not  only  of  his  throne,  but 
even  of  his  eternal  salvation.     Meantime  the  govern- 
ment had  been  neglected  and  the  kingdom  ruined;  but 
now  God  had  restored  him  to  his  health  and  faculties, 
and  the  exercise  of  regal  authority;  and  he  therefore 
ordained  an  universal  thanksgiving  over  the  whole  of 
Sweden.     He  had  the  effrontery  to  exhort  the  nobles 
to  set  to  the  people  the  example  of  an  honorable  and 
useful  life;  for,  said  this  human  devil  turned  preacher, 
"  Ye  were  not  raised  to  the  class  of  nobles  in  intent 
and  act  merely  that  ye  should  lead  merry  days  and  do 
no  good  in  return  to  the  realm  of  Sweden." 
Eventszuhich  Tne  *"ata*  events  °f  tne  previous  year,  and 
led  to  a  Re-  the  marriage  of  the  king  to  a  mistress  of  the 
volL  class  of  peasants,  could  not  fail  to  produce 

profound    discontent    throughout    the    kingdom.     But 
other  events  occurred  and  were  made  known,  which 


174  The  Reformation  in  Sweden. 

rendered  it  quite  impossible  that  so  depraved  and  vile 
a  monarch  could  long  remain  upon  the  throne  in  a 
nation  that  retained  the  least  of  that  spirit  of  independ- 
ence and  self-assertion  which  had  been  exhibited  even 
in  exaggerated  forms  in  the  earlier  portion  of  the  reign 
of  the  great  Gustavus. 

i.  Ivan  the  Terrible  of  Russia.  It  was  certainly  a 
most  disastrous  circumstance  for  nothern  and  eastern 
Europe  that  two  such  monarchs  as  Eric  and  Ivan  the 
Terrible  of  Russia  should  have  reigned  contemporane- 
ously. There  was  no  little  resemblance  between  these 
two  crowned  monsters.  They  were  both  subject  to 
fits  of  frenzy.  Those  of  Ivan  were  more  awful  in  their 
results  than  those  of  Eric,  because  they  were  longer  in 
their  duration,  and  because  his  power  was  more  abso- 
lute and  the  reach  of  his  tyranny  more  extensive,  and 
because  his  wildest  and  most  cruel  decrees  were  implicitly 
carried  into  execution.  It  is  not  essential  to  the  events 
which  I  am  about  to  describe,  in  which  Ivan  and  Eric 
were  concerned,  that  I  should  present  this  companion 
picture  of  another  mad  tyrant,  whose  atrocities  seem 
colossal  by  the  side  of  those  of  the  king  of  Sweden ;  but 
the  description  will  better  enable  us  to  realize  the  hor- 
rors of  that  wild  time,  and  to  appreciate  the  guilt  of 
Eric  in  entering  into  a  nefarious  compact  with  one  whose 
frantic  crimes  it  would  seem  might  have  appalled  even 
him.  I  quote  from  Kelly's  Compendium  of  Karamsin, 
a  native  Russian  author. 

"  In  his  first  fit  of  rage  several  great  boyars  of  the 
family  of  Ruric  (the  old  royal  line)  were  put  to  death 
by  beheading,  poisoning,  or  impaling;  their  wives  and 
children  were  driven  naked  into  the  forests,  where  they 
expired  under  the  scourge.  In  a  second  paroxysm  he 
marched  as  a  conqueror  against  the  subjugated  Novo- 


The  Reformation  in  Sweden.  175 

gorod;  and  imagining  that  he  imitated  or  perhaps  sur- 
passed the  victory  of  his  grandfather,  he  butchered 
with  his  own  hand  a  throng  of  the  unfortunate  inhabi- 
tants whom  he  had  heaped  together  in  a  vast  inclosure, 
and  when  at  last  his  strength  failed  to  second  his  fury, 
he  gave  up  the  remainder  to  his  select  guards,  to  his 
slaves,  to  his  dogs,  and  to  the  opened  ice  of  the  Bolkof 
in  which,  for  more  than  a  month,  these  hapless  beings 
were  daily  ingulfed  by  hundreds.  Then  declaring 
that  his  justice  was  satisfied  he  retired;  seriously  re- 
commending him  to  the  prayers  of  the  survivors;  who 
took  especial  care  not  to  neglect  the  orders  of  their 
terrestrial  deity. 

"Tver  and  Pskof  also  experienced  his  presence;  Mos- 
cow at  length  saw  him  again  and  on  the  same  day  the 
public  square  was  covered  with  red-hot  brasiers,  enor- 
mous cauldrons  of  brass,  and  eighty  gibbets.  Five 
hundred  of  the  most  illustrious  nobles,  already  torn  by 
tortures,  were  dragged  thither;  some  were  massacred 
amid  the  joyful  acclamations  of  his  savage  satellites; 
but  the  major  part  expired  under  the  protracted  agony 
of  being  slashed  with  knives  by  the  courtiers  of  the 
Muscovite  monster. 

"  Nor  were  women  spared  any  more  than  men;  Ivan 
ordered  them  to  be  hanged  at  their  own  doors;  and  he 
prohibited  their  husbands  from  going  out  and  in  with- 
out passing  under  the  corpses  of  their  companions  till 
they  rotted  and  dropped  to  pieces  on  them.  Elsewhere 
husbands  or  children  were  fastened  dead  at  the  places 
which  they  had  occupied  at  the  domestic  table,  and 
their  wives  or  mothers  were  compelled  to  sit  opposite 
to  their  dear  and  lifeless  remains. 

"To  the  dogs  and  bears  which  this  raging  madman 
delighted  to  let   loose  upon  the  people,  was  left  the 


176  The  Reformation  in  Sweden. 

task  of  clearing  the  public  square  from  the  mutilated 
bodies  which  encumbered  it.  According  to  the  annals 
of  Pskof  there  were  60,000  victims  at  Novogorod  alone. 
Every  day  Ivan  invented  new  modes  of  punishment 
which  his  tyrrany,  jaded  by  so  many  excesses,  still 
looked  upon  as  insufficient.  Very  soon  he  required 
fratricides  and  parricides!  Basmanof  was  compelled 
to  kill  his  father;  Prozoroosky  his  brother.  The  mon- 
ster next  drowned  eight  hundred  women;  and  rummag- 
ing with  atrocious  cupidity  the  abodes  of  his  victims  he, 
by  dint  of  shocking  tortures,  compelled  the  remaining 
relations  to  point  out  the  places  in  which  their  wealth 
was  hidden.  These  confiscations,  joined  to  monopo- 
lies, taxes  and  conquests,  accumulated  in  his  palace 
the  riches  of  the  empire  and  the  Tartars. 

"Setting  himself  above  all  laws  this  lustful  being  mar- 
ried seven  wives.  Even  his  daughter-in-law  was  forced 
to  fly  from  his  death-bed,  terrified  by  his  lascivious- 
ness.  He  was  eager  to  procure  an  eighth  wife  from  the 
court  of  his  friend  Elizabeth  of  England;  and  the  daugh- 
ter of  the  earl  of  Huntington  was  offered  to  the  inspec- 
tion of  the  Russian  embassador,  at  her  own  desire  and 
the  queen's.  The  daughter  of  Henry  VIII.  was  not 
shocked  to  hear,  at  the  same  time,  of  the  czar's  wish  to 
be  married,  and  of  the  birth  of  a  prince  born  to  him  by 
his  seventh  living  wife;  but  before  the  English  match 
was  concluded  Mary  Hastings  took  fright,  and  begged 
Elizabeth  to  spare  her  the  perilous  honor.  To  com- 
plete Ivan's  usurpation  he  assumed  the  manner  of  one 
who  was  inspired;  and  by  all  those  external  signs  which 
our  bounded  imagination  attribute  to  the  Divinity,  he 
made  himself  God  in  the  minds  of  his  people.  All  that 
came  from  his  hands,  blows,  wounds,  even  the  most 
degrading   treatment,  was  received   with   resignation, 


The  Reformation  in  Sweden.  177 

nay  adoration.  In  the  blind  and  servile  submission  of 
the  Russian  people  God  and  czar  were  identified;  their 
proverbial  sayings  bear  witness  to  this.  This  was 
the  national  formula  of  speech  in  reference  to  anything 
future:  'If  God  and  the  czar  wills  it.'  If  there  is  in 
history  the  record  of  a  more  horrible  royal  monster, 
and  of  one  who  exercised  such  atrocious  and  wanton 
and  widespread  cruelty  and  desolation  among  his  own 
subjects,  I  know  not  where  to  find  it." 

2.  Relation  of  Eric  to  Ivan.  When  the  proposal 
of  Duke  John  for  the  hand  of  the  Polish  princess, 
Catherine,  was  made,  it  was  found  that  Ivan  was  also 
her  suitor.  But  the  czar  and  Sigismund  not  being 
able  to  agree  upon  the  terms  of  the  marriage  con- 
tract, the  suit  of  the  czar  was  rejected.  The  Poles, 
who  had  been  at  war  with  the  Russians  for  hundreds 
of  years,  intensely  hated  them;  and  to  show  their  con- 
tempt for  Ivan  sent  him  instead  of  Catherine  a  female 
figure,  a  large  doll,  in  a  splendid  wedding  dress.  The 
czar  was  furious,  and  invaded  and  cruelly  ravaged  Po- 
land. But  this  did  not  satisfy  him.  He  was  deter- 
mined to  get  possession  of  Catherine,  notwithstanding 
her  marriage  to  Duke  John. 

When  King  Eric  was  married  to  Karin  Mansdotter, 
John  and  his  brothers  returned  thanks  for  the  invitation 
to  the  wedding;  but  did  not  dare  to  go.  Duke  John 
had  learned  that  Eric  had  secretly  promised  in  1556  to 
deliver  his  wife  into  the  hands  of  Ivan,  on  condition 
that  the  czar  would  desist  from  his  claims  on  Eastland 
and  assist  him  against  the  Poles.  It  is  a  striking  evi- 
dence of  the  degradation  to  which  the  tyrrany  of  Eric 
had  brought  his  subservient  officials  that  the  eminent 
chancellor  Nicholas  Gillenstierna,  in  February,  1567, 
actually  subscribed  at  Moscow  a  convention  by  which 


178  The  Reformation  in  Sweden. 

Eric  engaged  to  give  up  his  sister-in-law  to  the  czar 
on  the  conditions  named  above.     After  John  and  his 
wife  were  liberated  it  was  no  longer  in  Eric's  power  to 
fulfill  this  promise.     But  a  Russian  embassy  to  Stock- 
holm demanded  its  fulfillment,  and  a  letter  from  Eric  to 
Ivan,  in  April,  1568,  shows  that  the  negotiations  were 
not  yet  ended.     These  facts  coming  to  the  knowledge 
of  John  seemed  to  absolve  him  from  all  further  loyalty 
to  his  brother.     The  marriage  of  Eric  and  the  growing 
weariness  and  detestation  of  the  people  for  his  cruel 
and  capricious  rule  gave  the  opportunity,  and  the  last 
contemplated  outrage  upon  himself  and  wife  furnished 
the  motive  and  vindication  of  his  rebellion. 
Rebellion  of    Only  four  days  after  Eric's  wedding  he  learned 
the  Dukes.      0f  the  revolt  of  the  brothers,  John  and  Charles. 
They  took  possession  of  Wadstena  on  the  Lake  Wetter, 
a  central  and  populous  part  of  the  country;  and  were 
soon  joined  by  many  adherents.     The  brothers  met  for 
their  first  conference  on  this  matter  under  an  oak  in 
Wormland;  and  when  they  gathered  their  followers  at 
Wadstena,   oak-leaves    in   their    hats    and    caps   were 
adopted  to  commemorate  the  event,  and  to  designate 
their  party.     The  proclamation  which  they  issued  must 
have  been  convincing  and  acceptable  to  the  realm.    The 
principal  charges  made  against  Eric  were — "  that  he 
had  often  violated  his  faith  to  God  and  man;  that  he  had 
kept  his  brother  Duke  John,  with  his  wife  and  children, 
five  years  in  prison,  without  having  been  convicted  of 
any  crime;  that  he  had  murdered  several  innocent  lords 
at  Upsala;  that  he  had  designed  to  assassinate  several 
others,  together  with  his  two  brothers,  at  his  marriage; 
that  to  the  great  scandal  of  the  royal  family,  he  had 
made  his  concubine,  a  person  of  peasant  origin,  queen 
of  Sweden.     To  this  they  added  that  he  would  have 


The  Reformation  in  Sweden.  179 

given  up  the  Duke  John's  wife  to  Ivan  of  Russia;  that 
contrary  to  his  pledges  he  had  restored  the  infamous 
Persson  to  place,  and  his  old  influence;  and,  in  fine,  that 
he  had  committed  many  vile  and  infamous  actions  un- 
worthy the  majesty  of  a  king  "  (Puffendorf,  246).  I  pass 
over  the  rapid  successive  steps  which  ended  in  the  cap- 
ture of  Eric  in  the  early  part  of  1569.  Brought  to  trial 
he  conducted  his  own  defense.  When  at  one  point 
Duke  John  interrupted  him  with  the  exclamation  that 
he  was  out  of  his  senses,  he  answered:  "  Once  only  was 
I  out  of  my  senses — when  I  let  thee  slip  from  prison." 
His  condemnation  and  imprisonment  were  foregone 
conclusions.  His  harsh  treatment  was  not  honorable  to 
John,  whose  imprisonment  had  been  made  so  light  by 
Eric.  Several  unsuccessful  plots  for  his  release  were 
made.  These  were  so  numerous  and  alarming  that 
Duke  John  gave  directions  that  in  certain  emergencies 
he  should  be  poisoned.  This  took  place  the  25th  of 
February,  1577,  in  the  forty-ninth  year  of  his  age,  and 
the  ninth  of  his  imprisonment.  It  was  the  fit  end  of  an 
awful  life. 

Very  little  that  can  properly  be  called  Church 

State  of  Re-     TT.   /  .  ,*.,,. 

Hgion  dur-  History  is  to  be  found  during  the  wild  and 
ing    this    troubled  reign  of  Eric.     When  he  was,  as  he 

Reign.  5*  ,  ' 

supposed,  about  to  proceed  to  England  for 
the  hand  of  Queen  Elizabeth,  he  put  forth  a  decree  to 
abolish  some  of  the  ceremonies  of  the  Lutheran  Church, 
and  to  bring  it  into  nearer  conformity  to  the  doctrine 
and  discipline  of  the  Reformed.  This  was  done  under 
the  influence  of  his  former  tutor,  Buerreus,  a  Frenchman, 
and  under  the  impression  probably  that  such  a  pro- 
ceeding would  commend  him  and  the  proposed  match 
to  the  favorable  regard  of  Elizabeth.  But  the  arch- 
bishop and  the  people  were  too  devoted  to  the  Lutheran 


180  The  Reformation  in  Sweden. 

system  to  be  at  all  influenced  by  this  decree.  It  re- 
mained wholly  inoperative. 

At  the  same  time  a  Nuncio  from  the  Pope,  John 
Francis,  came  to  Sweden  in  order  to  bring  back  the 
king  and  the  country  to  the  Papal  obedience.  The 
name  of  the  Nuncio  suggests  his  probable  English  or- 
igin and  the  connection  of  the  embassy  with  the  design 
of  securing  the  return  of  Queen  Elizabeth  to  the  Papal 
obedience,  and  of  influencing  her  in  that  direction  by 
gaining  over  Eric,  who  it  was  generally  believed  was 
an  accepted  suitor  of  the  queen.  That  this  secret 
Nuncio  labored  to  pave  the  way  for  that  Catholic 
reaction  which  was  subsequently  attempted  by  King 
John  is  a  matter  of  course.  But  the  kingdom  had  been 
brought  by  Gustavus  into  such  a  firm  hold  upon  Lu- 
theranism,  consecrated  in  the  memory  of  the  people 
by  all  the  glorious  struggles  and  triumphs  of  his  now 
lamented  reign,  that  neither  the  Reformed  nor  the 
Roman  Church  could  make  any  progress  in  the  way  of 
winning  proselytes. 

Duke   7o/m    ^e  *"W°  dukes  ^ao^  labored  in  concert  for 
proclaimed    the  overthrow  of  Eric.     During  the  progress 
ing'  of  the  revolt,  an  equal  homage  and  acknowl- 

edgment of  obedience,  on  the  part  of  the  people,  was 
rendered  to  both  brothers.  It  was  at  first  arranged 
that  they  were  to  reign  together.  There  is  evidence 
that  such  was  originally  declared  to  be  the  arrange- 
ment agreed  upon  by  the  brothers,  and  assented  to  by 
their  partisans.  Puffendorf  declares  that  it  was  con- 
firmed by  an  oath  on  the  part  of  John;  and  that  the  first 
money  that  was  coined  bore  the  names  and  effigies  of 
both  the  princes.  But  this  arrangement  was  manifestly 
impracticable.  Yet  it  was  well  for  the  success  of 
their  enterprise  that  such  should  be,  or  should  be  be- 


The  Reformation  in  Sweden.  181 

lieved  to  be,  the  design,  in  order  that  there  might  be 
unity  of  counsel  and  of  action.  When  the  brothers 
succeeded  in  their  enterprise  the  seniority  of  John 
and  his  government  of  Stockholm  were  immediately 
and  treacherously  taken  advantage  of  by  him  to  se- 
cure the  acknowledgment  of  him  as  king.  The  Coun- 
cil accepted  him  as  such  on  his  arrival,  and  the 
Estates  confirmed  the  recognition.  Charles  did  not 
disguise  his  dissatisfaction,  and  could  not,  or  did 
not  drop  the  tone  of  an  equal  in  all  his  transac- 
tions with  his  brother.  Endowed  with  far  more  force 
of  mind  and  power  of  will  than  John,  he  did  not  fail  to 
exercise  a  controlling  voice  in  the  government,  and 
to  dominate  over  his  less  gifted  and  energetic  brother. 
He  was  the  only  one  of  the  sons  of  Gustavus  who  in- 
herited his  father's  great  intellectual  and  administrative 
capacity,  his  decision  of  character,  and  his  thoroughly 
conscientious  and  pronounced  Protestantism.  But 
while  in  these  respects  he  resembled  his  father,  he  was 
wanting  in  that  geniality  and  friendliness,  and  charm 
of  manner  and  adaptation  to  all  classes  which  won  for 
Gustavus  such  enthusiastic  affection  and  regard.  But 
while  Charles  represented  his  father  in  his  higher  char- 
acteristics, his  weaker  brother  represented  him  in  his 
more  popular  traits;  and  was  thus  enabled  to  hold  his 
place  upon  the  throne  notwithstanding  proceedings 
on  his  part  which  were  repugnant  to  the  national 
will  and  conscience. 

The  first  care  of  King  John  was  to  strengthen 
bestowecfup-  himself  by  renewing  the  old  privileges  of  the 
on  the  No-  nobility  and  bestowing  upon  them  new  im- 
munities. He  reversed  the  attainder  pro- 
nounced upon  the  great  families  whose  chiefs  were 
destroyed   by  Eric.     He    restored   to   the   nobles   the 


182  The  Reformation  in  Sweden. 

right  of  collecting  the  taxes  due  from  their  dependents 
to  the  king.  The  supreme  court  established  by  Eric, 
whose  effect  was  to  centralize  the  powers  of  the  king- 
dom in  the  government  at  Stockholm,  and  to  limit 
the  independence  of  the  lords,  was  abolished.  Ac- 
cused nobles  were  not  to  be  incarcerated  until  after 
conviction.  The  policy  of  Gustavus  was  to  increase 
the  powers  and  resources  of  the  nobility  in  order  that, 
bound  to  the  king  by  benefits  received  and  hoped  for, 
they  might  add  both  strength  and  eclat  to  the  throne. 
The  effect  of  the  policy  of  John,  which  it  cost  King 
Charles  many  efforts  and  long  years  to  undo,  was  to 
add  to  the  prerogatives  of  the  nobles;  and  at  the 
same  time  to  weaken  the  ties  which  bound  them  to 
the  throne. 

Sigismund  The  election  of  Sigismund,  son  of  King  John, 
elected  King  to  the  throne  of  Poland  is  the  event  which, 
^  fostered  by  the  vascillating  policy  and  the 

uncertain  position  of  his  father,  led  to  the  counter- 
Reformation.  It  will  be  necessary  to  refer  to  some  of 
the  circumstances  which  preceded  this  event. 

I.  The  Condition  of  Poland.  Poland  was  unlike,  in 
many  respects,  any  other  kingdom  in  Europe.  Its 
development  was  not,  like  that  of  Germany  and  France, 
from  a  feudal  system,  in  which  a  limited  number  of  great 
lords  towered  high  above  all  the  other  classes  of  the  pop- 
ulation. During  the  Jagallon  dynasty,  1384  to  1572, 
which  reigned  nearly  two  centuries,  the  throne  had  been 
hereditary,  but  its  power  had  been  extremely  limited 
by  their  diets.  These  diets  were  in  theory,  and  at  first 
largely  in  fact,  composed  of  the  army,  which  consisted 
of  only  those  called  nobles.  There  were  but  two  classes 
of  the  Polish  population,  the  nobles  who  composed  the 
army,  and   the   serfs   and  agricultural   laborers.     The 


The  Reformation  in  Sweden.  183 

trading  and  mechanic  classes  consisted  chiefly  of  Jews, 
and  the  professions  were  filled  by  Germans.  Of  these 
nobles  some  few  were  large  proprietors;  but  the  greater 
number  were  poor,  and  could  not  break  through  the 
traditions  which  their  nobility  imposed  upon  them,  and 
enter,  in  the  intervals  of  warfare,  into  lucrative  profes- 
sions. It  was  a  state  of  society,  a  form  of  polity,  quite 
unique — one  which  of  necessity  led  to  many  wars,  and 
was  not  calculated  to  promote  domestic  quiet. 

2.  The  Diets.  Up  to  the  beginning  of  the  fifteenth 
century  the  diets  had  been  general  assemblies  of  all  the 
nobles; — that  is,  in  fact,  of  the  army.  But  the  growing 
inconvenience  of  holding  meetings  of  more  than  100,000 
horsemen  on  an  open  plain,  and  of  securing  intelligible 
and  well  considered  laws  and  regulations  from  such  an 
assembly,  obliged  the  Poles  at  length  to  adopt  a  system 
of  representation.  Minor  diets  or  colloquia  had  long 
been  held  by  each  of  the  Palatines  in  their  palatinates 
for  the  administration  of  justice,  and  these  now  began 
to  appoint  deputies  to  the  national  diet.  In  the  course 
of  time  each  of  these  districts  adopted  this  system; 
and  about  1468  the  custom  had  become  nearly  universal 
of  sending  from  each  palatinate  two  deputies  to  the 
general  diet.  The  development  of  this  system  was 
very  gradual,  and  it  was  never  universally  adopted. 
Some  of  the  old  nobles,  tenacious  of  their  traditional 
rights,  refused  to  transfer  them  to  a  deputy.  The  dep- 
uties were  bound  to  act  precisely  according  to  the 
directions  of  their  constituents.  At  this  period  also 
the  towns  secured  the  elective  franchise;  and  were  per- 
mitted to  send  deputies  to  the  diet  of  the  palatinate, 
and  all  of  them  in  combination,  within  one  of  these 
districts,  could  also  send  their  two  deputies  to  the 
general  diet.     It  was  a  singular  system.     An  heredi- 


1 84  The  Reformation  in  Sweden. 

tary  monarchy  of  very  limited  powers,  controlled  by  an 
army  calling  itself  a.  nobility,  which  was  at  the  same 
time  the  only  national  legislature;  and  at  this  period 
both  the  king  and  nobility,  for  the  maintenance  or 
increase  of  their  prerogatives,  seeking  the  aid  of  the  new 
power,  the  representatives  of  the  towns  and  cities.  The 
only  prerogative  which  gave  power  and  dignity  to  the 
crown  was  that  of  appointment  to  all  offices  in  the 
kingdom. 

3.  Literary  Culture  of  the  Nobility.  Though  a 
large  portion  of  the  nobility  were  poor,  they  were,  as 
a  class,  unusually  cultivated  and  learned.  Their  en- 
forced exclusion  from  all  professions,  except  that  of 
war,  drove  large  numbers  of  them  into  the  pursuit  and 
enjoyment  of  learning.  The  Latin  language  was  very 
generally  understood,  and,  as  spoken  and  written,  was 
almost  as  widely  used  among  the  better  classes  of 
Germans  and  Jews,  as  well  as  among  the  Poles,  as  the 
vernacular.  When,  after  the  death  of  the  last  king  of 
the  hereditary  dynasty  of  Jagallon,  1572,  the  mon- 
archy became  elective,  Henry,  Duke  of  Anjou,  son 
of  Catherine  de  Medici,  and  brother  of  Charles  IX., 
was  elected  king.  An  embassy  was  sent  to  Paris  to 
announce  the  decision;  and  the  description  given 
of  this  Polish  deputation,  by  an  eye  witness  of  its 
reception,  confirms  the  statement  which  I  have  made 
of  the  relative  superiority  in  culture  of  the  Poles,  at 
this  period,  to  persons  of  the  same  class  in  other  coun- 
tries. The  account  is  taken  from  the  great  French 
historian,  De  Thou. 

"  It  is  impossible  to  express  the  general  astonish- 
ment when  we  saw  these  embassadors  in  long  robes, 
fur  caps,  sabres,  arrows  and  quivers;  but  our  admira- 
tion was  excessive  when  we  saw  the   sumptuousness 


The  Reformation  in  Sweden.  185 

of  their  equipages,  the  scabbards  of  their  swords 
adorned  with  jewels,  their  bridles,  saddles,  and  horse 
cloths  decked  in  the  same  way,  and  the  air  of  conse- 
quence and  dignity  by  which  they  were  distinguished. 
One  of  the  most  remarkable  circumstances  was  their 
facility  in  expressing  themselves  in  Latin,  French, 
German,  and  Italian.  These  four  languages  were  as 
familiar  to  them  as  their  vernacular  tongue.  There 
were  only  two  men  in  court  who  could  answer  them 
in  Latin,  the  Baron  of  Millau  and  the  Marquis  of 
Castlenau.  They  had  been  commissioned  expressly 
to  support  the  honor  of  the  French  nation;  but  they 
had  reason  to  blush  at  their  comparative  ignorance 
in  this  point.  The  embassadors  spoke  our  language 
with  so  much  purity,  that  one  would  have  taken  them 
rather  for  men  educated  upon  the  banks  of  the  Seine, 
than  for  the  inhabitants  of  the  countries  which  were 
watered  by  the  Vistula  and  the  Dnieper,  which  put 
our  courtiers  to  the  blush,  who  knew  nothing,  but 
were  open  enemies  of  all  science;  so  that  when  their 
guests  questioned  them  they  answered  only  with  signs 
or  blushes." 

4.  Religious  Toleration  in  Poland.  It  is  another 
remarkable  characteristic  of  the  condition  of  Poland 
that  under  the  Jagallon  dynasty,  while  Catholicism 
was  the  religion  of  the  state,  a  free  toleration  to  all 
other  systems  was  allowed.  It  is  a  striking  spectacle 
in  the  midst  of  the  stormy  and  intolerant  sixteenth 
century,  when  the  Papacy  and  the  Reformation  every- 
where else  studied  to  exclude  each  other: — that  of 
full  and  free  toleration  and  kindly  feeling,  among  all 
churches  and  all  forms  of  faith.  I  quote  a  description 
of  this  state  of  things  from  Fletcher's  "  History  of 
Poland." 


1 86  The  Reformation  in  Sweden. 

"  There  were  perhaps  more  printing-presses  at  this 
time — i.  e.,  in  the  sixteenth  century — in  Poland  than 
there  have  ever  been  since,  or  than  there  were  in 
any  other  country  of  Europe  at  the  time.  There 
were  eighty-three  towns  where  they  printed  books; 
and  in  Cracow  alone  there  were  fifty  presses.  The 
chief  circumstances  which  supported  so  many  printing- 
houses  in  Poland  at  this  time  was  the  liberty  of  the 
press;  which  allowed  the  publication  of  the  writings 
of  all  the  contending  sects,  which  were  not  permitted 
to  be  printed  elsewhere. 

"  Nor  were  the  Poles  less  advanced  in  that  most 
enlightened  feeling  of  civilization, — religious  tolera- 
tion. When  almost  all  the  rest  of  Europe  was  del- 
uged with  the  blood  of  contending  sectaries;  while 
the  Lutherans  were  perishing  in  Germany;  while  the 
blood  of  a  hundred  thousand  Protestants,  the  victims 
of  the  war  of  persecution,  and  the  horrid  massacre  of 
St.  Bartholomew,  was  crying  from  the  ground  of  France 
against  the  infamous  Triumvirate  and  the  hypocritical 
Catherine  de  Medici;  while  Mary  made  England  a  fiery 
ordeal  of  persecution;  and  even  the  heart  of  the  virgin 
queen  was  not  entirely  cleansed  of  the  foul  stuff  of 
bigotry,  but  dictated  the  burning  of  the  Arians — Po- 
land opened  an  asylum  for  all  religions  and  allowed 
every  man  to  worship  God  in  his  own  way.  '  Mosques/ 
says  Rulhiere,  '  were  raised  among  churches  and  syna- 
gogues. Leopol  has  always  been  the  seat  of  three 
bishops,  Greek,  Armenian  and  Latin;  and  it  was  never 
inquired  which  of  the  three  cathedrals  any  man  who 
consented  to  submit  to  the  regulations  of  government 
went  to  receive  the  communion.  Lastly,  when  the 
Reformation  was  rending  so  many  states  into  inimi- 
cal factions,  Poland,  without  proscribing  her  ancient 


The  Reformation  in  Sweden.  187 

religion,  received  into  her  bosom  the  two  new  sects.' 
All  parties  were  allowed  a  perfect  liberty  of  the 
press.  The  Catholics  printed  their  books  at  Cracow, 
Posen,  Lubin,  etc.,  while  the  followers  of  the  Confes- 
sion of  Augsburg  published  theirs  in  Paniowicka, 
Dombrow,  etc.;  the  Reformers  at  Pinczow,  Brzese, 
Neiswiez;  the  Arians  in  Racow  and  Baslaw;  and  the 
Greek  sectarians  in  Lithuania,  at  Ostrow  and  Wilna." 

Such  was  the  state  of  the  kingdom  when  Sigismund 
II.,  the  last  of  the  kings  of  the  house  of  Jagallon,  died 
in  1572. 

5.  Catholic  Reaction  in  Poland.  On  the  death  of 
Sigismund  II.,  and  the  extinction  of  the  Jagallon 
dynasty,  Poland  seemed  about  to  be  delivered  up 
to  hopeless  anarchy.  The  crown  was  formally  made 
over  to  his  subjects  by  the  dying  king.  Poland  be- 
came henceforward  an  elective  monarchy.  After  a 
decorous  interval,  in  which  the  kingdom  was  adminis- 
tered by  the  council  of  state,  the  archbishop,  Gnesne, 
convoked  a  diet  for  considering  the  steps  proper  to 
be  taken  for  the  election  of  a  new  king.  The  partisans 
and  lovers  of  the  old  method  of  assembling  all  the 
nobles  at  the  national  diets  prevailed  in  securing  the 
decision  that  all  the  nobles  should  have  a  voice  in 
the  election  of  the  king.  It  was  resolved  that  all  the 
nobles  of  the  kingdom  should  meet  in  a  large  plain 
near  Warsaw.  Such  a  spectacle  was  never  elsewhere 
seen — thousands  of  nobles  on  horseback,  in  military 
costume,  assembled  to  elect  a  king.  In  this  so-called 
diet  the  coronation  oath,  or  pacta  conventa,  was  re- 
vised. Its  provisions  remained  unaltered  until  the 
dismemberment  of  Poland  by  Prussia  and  Russia.  It 
stripped  the  monarch  of  all  power  except  that  of  ex- 
ecuting the  laws  framed  by  the  diet,  with  the  single, 


i88  The  Reformation  in  Sweden. 

but  important,  exception  of  appointments  to  all  the 
offices  in  the  kingdom.  It  made  the  crown  elective 
and  provided  for  the  regular  convocation  of  the  diet 
every  two  years.  It  bound  the  king  and  the  kingdom 
to  perfect  toleration  of  all  religions.  The  Roman 
Catholic  however  remained  the  state  religion,  and  the 
kings  were  bound  to  be  of  that  profession  of  faith. 

The  nobles  accordingly  assembled  on  the  plain 
near  Warsaw;  and  most  picturesque  and  brilliant,  and 
certainly  unique,  was  the  scene  and  the  proceedings. 
Several  candidates  were  nominated,  among  whom 
were  King  John  of  Sweden;  Ernest,  son  of  the  em- 
peror Maximilian  of  Austria;  and  Henry,  Duke  of 
Anjou,  son  of  Catherine  de  Medici  and  brother  of 
Charles  IX.,  then  king  of  France.  The  latter  was 
elected;  that  is,  he  was  accepted,  not  by  a  counted 
and  ascertained  majority,  but  by  a  louder  acclaim  and 
clash  of  arms  than  greeted  the  announcement  of  any 
other  name.  No  sooner  however  had  he  reluctantly 
reached  Poland,  than  he  was  informed  of  the  death 
of  Charles,  which  left  him  the  rightful  heir  of  the 
throne  of  France.  Knowing  that  the  Poles  would 
not  allow  him  to  violate  the  oath  which  bound  him 
to  reside  in  Poland,  he  resolved  to  leave,  and  did 
leave,  the  kingdom  by  stealth.  He  was  overtaken  a 
few  leagues  from  Cracow  by  a  Polish  nobleman,  but 
resolutely  refused  to  return. 

The  next  person  elected  was  Stephen  Batory,  Duke 
of  Transylvania,  the  husband  of  Anne,  the  sister  of  the 
late  king  Sigismund.  He  was  a  prince  of  rare  virtues 
and  eminent  talent.  In  his  wars  with  Russia  he  gained 
great  renown,  no  less  for  his  signal  victories,  than  for 
the  contrast  of  his  just  and  elevated  spirit  with  the 
barbarous  and  vindictive  character  of  his  Russian  foes. 


The  Reformation  in  Sweden.  189 

It  was  under  this  wise  and  just  king  that  the  Ro- 
manists acquired  a  great  increase  of  influence  and 
power.  They  did  not  succeed  in  changing  the  laws 
which  enforced  toleration,  but  they  put  themselves, 
through  the  mistaken  policy  of  the  king,  at  the 
sources  of  religious  influence,  which  greatly  extended 
the  power  of  the  Papacy  and  threatened  to  bring  the 
kingdom  again  into  absolute  obedience  to  the  Pope. 
The  peace  between  Poland  and  Russia  was  brought 
about  through  the  agency  of  Possevin,  the  Jesuit,  and 
Legate  of  the  Pope.  This  led  to  the  introduction  of 
the  Jesuits  into  Poland.  That  order  was  of  high  repu- 
tation for  its  learning;  and  the  king,  ignorant  of  their 
history  and  principles,  imagined  that  he  was  promot- 
ing the  welfare  of  his  kingdom  when  he  intrusted  to 
them  the  care  of  the  University  of  Wilna,  which  he 
had  just  founded.  But  there,  as  everywhere  in  Europe, 
they  soon  showed  themselves  in  a  different  character 
from  that  of  peaceful  teachers,  which  it  was  their 
policy,  when  they  wished  to  get  possession  of  a  king- 
dom, to  assume. 

The  successive  steps  by  which  this  influence  was 
acquired  are  stated  by  Ranke  with  his  usual  clearness: 

"An  opinion  has  been  expressed  that  the  Protes- 
tants, who  for  a  time  certainly  had  as  we  have  seen 
the  decided  supremacy  in  Poland,  would  also  have  been 
in  a  condition  to  raise  a  king  of  their  own  faith  to  the 
throne,  but  that  even  they  themselves  came  at  length 
to  consider  a  Catholic  more  advantageous,  because  in 
the  person  of  the  Pope  he  had  still  a  higher  power  and 
judge  placed  over  him. 

"If  this  were  so  they  brought  a  very  heavy  punish- 
ment upon  themselves  for  a  decision  so  adverse  to 
Protestantism. 


190  The  Reformation  in  Sweden. 

"  For  it  was  precisely  by  the  agency  of  a  Catholic 
king  that  the  Pope  was  able  to  make  war  on  them. 
"  Of  all  the  foreign  embassadors  to  Poland  the  Papal 
Nuncios  alone  possessed  the  right  of  demanding  audi- 
ence of  the  king  without  the  presence  of  a  senator. 
We  know  what  these  men  were.  They  had  prudence 
and  address  enough  to  cultivate  and  profit  by  the  con- 
fidential intercourse  thus  placed  within  their  reach. 

"  In  the  beginning  of  the  eightieth  year  of  the  six- 
teenth century  Cardinal  Bolognetto  was  the  Nuncio  in 
Poland.  He  complained  of  the  severity  of  the  climate; 
of  the  cold  to  which  as  an  Italian  he  was  doubly  sus- 
ceptible; of  the  close,  suffocating  air  in  the  small  heated 
rooms;  and  of  the  whole  mode  of  life  which  was  utterly 
uncongenial  to  his  habits  and  predilections.  He  nev- 
ertheless accompanied  King  Stephen  from  Warsaw  to 
Cracow,  from  Wilna  to  Lubin — throughout  the  kinsr- 
dom  in  short;  at  times  in  rather  a  melancholy  mood, 
but  none  the  less  indefatigable.  During  the  campaign 
he  kept  up  his  intercourse  with  the  king  at  least  by 
letter  and  maintained  an  uninterrupted  connection  be- 
tween the  interests  of  Rome  and  the  royal  personage. 

"We  have  a  circumstantial  relation  of  his  official 
proceedings  and  from  this  we  learn  the  character  of 
his  undertakings  and  how  far  he  prospered  in  them. 

"  Above  all  things  he  exhorted  the  king  to  appoint 
only  Catholics  to  government  offices;  to  permit  no 
other  worship  than  that  of  the  Catholic  Church  in 
the  royal  towns;  and  to  re-establish  the  tithes- 
measures  which  were  adopted  about  the  same  time 
in  other  countries  and  which  promoted  or  indicated 
the  renovation  of  Catholicism. 

"  But  the  Nuncio  was  not  wholly  successful  in  the 
first  instance.     King  Stephen  thought  he  could  not  go 


The  Reformation  in  Sweden.  191 

so  far;  he  declared  that  he  was  not  sufficiently  power- 
ful to  venture  it.  Yet  this  prince  was  not  only  imbued 
with  Catholic  convictions  he  had  besides  an  innate 
zeal  for  the  interests  of  the  Church,  and  in  many  par- 
ticulars his  decisions  were  regulated  by  the  represen- 
tations of  the  Nuncio. 

''It  was  under  the  immediate  patronage  of  royalty 
that  the  Jesuit  colleges  in  Cracow,  Gradno,  and 
Puttusk  were  established.  The  new  calendar  was 
introduced  without  difficulty  and  the  ordinances  of 
the  Council  of  Trent  were  for  the  most  part  carried 
into  full  effect.  But  the  most  important  circum- 
stance was  the  king's  determination  that  the  bishop- 
rics should  for  the  future  be  bestowed  on  Catholics 
only.  Protestants  had  previously  made  their  way  even 
to  these  ecclesiastical  dignities;  but  the  Nuncio  was 
now  authorized  to  summon  them  before  his  tribunal 
and  to  depose  them;  a  fact  of  all  the  more  importance 
inasmuch  as  that  a  seat  and  vote  in  the  senate  were 
attached  to  the  episcopal  office.  It  was  this  political 
efficacy  of  the  spiritual  institutions  that  the  Nuncio 
most  especially  sought  to  turn  to  account.  Above  all 
he  exhorted  the  bishops  to  be  unanimous  as  regarded 
the  measures  to  be  adopted  at  the  Diet,  and  these 
measures  were  prescribed  by  himself.  With  the  most 
powerful  of  the  Polish  ecclesiastics,  the  Archbishop 
Gnesne,  the  Archbishop  of  Cracow,  Bolognetto  had 
formed  a  close  personal  intimacy  which  was  of  infinite 
utility  for  the  promotion  of  his  views.  Thus  he  suc- 
ceeded not  only  in  awakening  new  zeal  among  the 
clergy,  but  also  in  at  once  obtaining  extensive  influ- 
ence over  temporal  affairs.  The  English  were  making 
proposals  for  a  commercial  treaty  with  Poland  which 
promised  to  be  very  advantageous,  more  particularly 


192  The  Reformation  in  Sweden. 

for  Dantzic.  It  was  by  the  Nuncio  alone  that  this 
purpose  was  defeated,  and  principally  because  the 
English  required  a  distinct  promise  that  they  should 
be  allowed  to  trade  and  live  in  peace  without  being 
persecuted  on  account  of  their  religion. 

"These  things  suffice  to  show  that,  however  moder- 
ate King  Stephen  might  be,  it  was  yet  under  him  that 
Catholicism  acquired  an  essential  reinstation  in  Poland." 

It  was  under  these  circumstances  that  Sigismund 
III.,  son  of  King  John  of  Sweden,  was  elected  King  of 
Poland.  His  mother,  Catherine  Jagellonica,  had  borne 
him  in  prison,  and  so  carefully  trained  him  in  the 
Catholic  faith  that  he  remained  immovably  fixed  in 
it,  notwithstanding  that  his  boyhood  and  youth  were 
passed  in  the  midst  of  the  Lutheranism  of  Sweden. 


CHAPTER   IX. 

THE    REIGN    OF    KING    JOHN    FROM     1 568    TO    1 583. 

IN  the  last  chapter,  after  a  description  of  the  events 
which  resulted  in  the  accession  of  Duke  John  to 
the  throne  of  Sweden,  and  an  account  of  his  general 
political  policy  in  the  administration  of  the  kingdom, 
there  followed  a  sketch  of  the  condition  of  Poland  up 
to  the  period  of  the  election  of  Sigismund,  the  son  of 
King  John,  to  the  throne  of  that  country.  It  may  seem 
that  it  would  have  been  a  more  natural  course  to  have 
proceeded  with  the  narrative  of  events  in  Sweden  up 
to  the  period  of  the  election  of  Sigismund;  and  then  to 
have  given  that  sketch  of  the  affairs  of  Poland  to  the 
time  when  they  became  implicated  with  those  of  Swe- 
den. It  seemed,  however,  that  in  proceeding  with  the 
story  of  John's  reign,  a  more  definite  impression  of  it 
would  be  conveyed  if  the  narrative  were  not  inter- 
rupted by  a  description  of  the  condition  of  Poland 
previous  to  the  election  of  Sigismund;  and  if  we  were 
so  far  in  possession  of  its  history  as  to  follow  intelli- 
gently the  proceedings  in  which  the  two  kingdoms 
were  subsequently  involved. 

During  the  whole  period  in  which  those  ec- 

Condition    clesiastical  events  occurred  King  John  was 

from  1  j 68    constantly  engaged   in   war  with   Denmark 

or  with  Russia.     The  war  with  Denmark  he 

had  inherited  on  his  accession,  1568,  from  Eric.     A  dis- 


194  The  Reformation  in  Sweden. 

graceful  truce  for  six  months,  to  be  consummated  by 
a  more  disgraceful  peace,  which  had  been  entered  into 
by  Eric,  was  disavowed  by  the  States  under  King  John. 
War  was  resumed  to  the  advantage  of  Sweden;  and  the 
Congress  of  Stettin,  under  the  mediation  of  the  Em- 
peror of  Austria,  the  King  of  France,  and  the  Elector 
of  Saxony,  concluded  a  peace  in  1570  which  was  ad- 
vantageous and  honorable  to  Sweden.  But  the  war 
with  Russia,  in  which  the  possession  of  Livonia  was 
contested,  and  which  led  to  successful  Swedish  inva- 
sions and  great  victories  in  Russia,  and  to  horrible  bar- 
barities on  the  part  of  Ivan  the  Terrible  in  Finland, 
was  not  closed  until  1582. 

Immediately  after  his  coronation  at  Upsala 
tire  for  Res-  King  John  confirmed  his  brother  Charles  in 
torahon  of    ^q  government  of  Sudermania,  Nericia  and 

Romanism.  °  .  . 

Wormland,  which  had  been  assigned  to  him 
in  the  last  will  of  Gustavus.  This  he  did,  not  only  to 
give  him  some  satisfaction  for  depriving  him  of  an  equal 
position  in  the  government  of  the  kingdom,  but  also  to 
remove  him  from  Stockholm,  that  he  might  not  be  able 
to  counteract  the  measures  which  the  king  had  deter- 
mined upon  for  the  restoration  of  Romanism.  His  pol- 
icy was  not  to  attempt  at  once  and  violently  to  restore 
it;  but  gradually  to  prepare  the  way  for  its  introduc- 
tion, by  so  modifying  the  liturgy  and  increasing  the 
splendor  of  the  ceremonies,  as  to  create  a  taste  and 
habit  which  would  not  ultimately  be  satisfied  with  any- 
thing less  than  the  full  restoration  of  the  Romish  sys- 
tem. Soon  after  his  coronation  he  proposed  to  the 
clergy  some  articles  relating  to  the  vestments  to  be 
used  in  the  public  worship  and  the  garments  to  be  or- 
dinarily worn  by  the  clergy,  which  would  present  them 
to  the  people  in  a  garb  closely  resembling  that  of  the 


The  Reformation  in  Sweden.  195 

Romish  ecclesiastics.  Other  regulations  concerning 
discipline  and  dependence  upon  the  bishops  were  pro- 
posed which  had  the  same  design.  But  these  articles 
were  at  once  rejected  by  the  clergy.  The  movement 
of  the  king  was  premature,  abrupt  and  unskillful.  It 
produced  just  that  conviction  of  his  intention  to  re- 
store Romanism  which  he  wished  to  disguise. 

After  concluding  a  peace  with  Denmark,  1 570, 
cuts' Summa-  King  John  again,  and  in  a  more  skillful  man- 
rv  of  Luther-  ner>  resumed  his  settled  purpose  to  bring  back 

the  kingdom  to  obedience  to  the  Pope.  Hav- 
ing heard  that  the  Archbishop  Nericius,  of  Stockholm, 
had  composed  a  work  which  was  intended  as  a  sum- 
mary of  the  Christian  doctrine  as  held  by  the  Swedish 
Church,  he  requested  the  archbishop  to  allow  him  to 
see  it  before  it  should  be  published.  Having  read  it 
over  he  persuaded  the  archbishop  to  leave  out  some 
of  the  most  pronounced  statements  of  the  Lutheran 
doctrine;  and  to  state  some  points  in  controversy  be- 
tween the  Lutheran  and  Catholic  Church  in  vague  and 
general  phraseology.  The  archbishop  not  only  con- 
sented to  these  modifications  but  also  to  the  statement 
at  the  close  of  the  book,  "that  there  were  several 
things  wanting  to  render  it  complete,  which  he  recom- 
mended his  successor  to  supply."  The  king  also  suc- 
ceeded in  having  it  sanctioned  by  synodical  authority; 
which  gave  it  the  same  position  in  the  Swedish  Church 
as  the  Apology  of  Jewel  and  that  of  Melancthon  oc- 
cupied in  the  Churches  of  England  and  Germany.  But 
the  book  was  not  allowed  to  pass  unquestioned.  Some 
of  the  clergy  exposed  its  unsound  or  unsatisfactory 
statements;  but,  as  usual  in  such  cases,  a  party  arose 
in  the  kingdom  favorable,  not  as  yet  to  the  rein- 
statement  of  the   Papal  power,  but   to  an    advanced 


ig6  The  Reformation  in  Sweden. 

doctrinal  system,  approaching  that  of  Rome,  and  to 
the  introduction  of  a  higher  and  more  showy  ritual. 
The  device  of  the  king  seemed,  as  a  first  step,  to  be 
successful. 

Policy  of  the  S°  strongly,  however,  did  the  majority  of  the 
King.  clergy  adhere  to  the  Augsburg  Confession, 

that  the  king  found  it  necessary  to  declare  that  his  design 
was  the  same  as  that  of  some  of  the  Lutheran  divines  in 
Germany,  who  labored  to  bring  Romanists  and  Luther- 
ans to  unite  upon  the  basis  of  the  doctrine  and  discipline 
of  the  undivided  Church  of  the  first  six  centuries.  Such 
had  been  the  policy  of  Ferdinand  I.  of  Austria  in  his 
later  days — a  policy  which  he  attempted  to  accomplish 
through  the  agency  of  Cassander,  a  Lutheran  divine, 
and  of  two  of  his  Roman  theologians,  Staphylus  and 
Wizel.  This,  however,  was  not  the  real  object  of  the 
king.  The  avowed  design  of  Cassander  was  his  real 
one;  whereas  King  John  hypocritically  professed  to 
adopt  it  only  with  the  view  to  pass  onward  from  it  to 
full  union  with  the  Church  of  Rome.  This  scheme  had 
proved  to  be  quite  impracticable  in  Germany,  as  John 
well  knew;  but  it  might  serve  to  deceive  those  who 
were  alarmed  at  the  innovations  which  seemed  to  look 
Romeward.  "  And  to  compass  his  design  the  better," 
says  Puffendorf,  "  he  called  a  convocation  of  the  bishops 
and  ministers  of  every  diocese  at  Stockholm,  to  consult 
about  the  choice  of  a  new  archbishop;  to  whom  he  rep- 
resented how  many  heresies  daily  grew  up  in  Europe; 
and  how  great  troubles  and  disorders  they  had  occa- 
sioned in  the  Low  Countries,  France  and  Germany; 
whence  he  inferred  that  it  was  best  to  adhere  to  the 
doctrine  of  the  Catholic  and  Apostolic  Church.  To 
which  he  added,  that  when  their  predecessors  had  gone 
about  to  destroy  the  ancient  errors  they  had  also  at  the 


The   Reformation  in  Sweden.  197 

same   time   abolished   several   good   and   decent  ordi- 
nances, to  the  great  prejudice  of  piety." 
A  new  Lit-    The   king   gradually  induced  his   clergy  to 
ursy-  accept  a  Liturgy  which  was,  in  large  part, 

his  own  work,  and  which  was  a  near  approach  to  the 
offices  of  the  Roman  Church.  The  service  for  the  ad- 
ministration of  the  eucharist,  which  was  called  a  mass, 
and  bore  a  great  resemblance  to  the  Roman  office,  was 
the  first  changed  form  that  was  accepted  by  the  clergy. 
John  made  its  acceptance  the  condition  of  filling  the 
long  vacant  sees  of  Linkoping  and  of  Westeras.  But, 
even  after  their  election,  the  king  would  not  consent  to 
confirm  them  in  their  temporalities  until  they  had 
signed  some  Articles  in  which  they  pledged  their  con- 
sent to  further  alterations  in  the  Liturgy.  The  king 
then  summoned  a  synod  at  Stockholm  for  the  revision 
of  all  the  forms  and  offices  of  the  Church,  with  the  pro- 
fessed view  of  bringing  them  into  conformity  with  those 
of  the  Church  of  the  first  six  centuries.  Under  the 
pressure  of  the  king  and  of  the  newly  consecrated 
bishops  the  synod  consented  to  the  proposed  changes. 
They  introduced  several  ceremonies  of  the  Romish 
Church,  such  especially  as  related  to  the  sacraments 
and  the  consecration  of  priests  and  bishops.  This  form- 
ulary was  called"  The  Liturgy  of  the  Church  of  Sweden, 
according  to  the  Catholic  and  Orthodox  Church,"  and 
was  published  in  Latin  and  Swedish,  that  at  first  they 
might  make  use  of  both  languages;  and  that  when  the 
people  should  become  accustomed  to  it  they  might 
drop  the  use  of  the  Swedish  altogether. 
.  ,.,     It  is  not  to  be  supposed  that  the  Pope  would 

A  &ency  ojthe  l  r  r 

Pope  in  these  remain  ignorant  or  an  inactive  spectator  of 
Movements.  these  proceedings.  The  character  of  John 
was  such  as  to  lay  him  open  to  flatteries  and  intrigues 


198  The  Reformation  in  Sweden. 

of  subtle  Papists  and  to  the  influence  of  his  noble  and 
gifted  wife.  He  was  a  man  of  large  learning, — speak- 
ing and  writing  readily  and  well  German,  French,  Ital- 
ian, and  English;  and  able  to  make  long  Latin  speeches 
without  premeditation.  Theology  was  the  science  of 
the  age  and  during  his  long  imprisonment  he  devoted 
himself  to  it;  and  at  first  seemed  really  to  have  adopted 
the  views  of  Cassander,  which  he  subsequently  brought 
forward  as  a  blind  to  his  purpose  of  introducing  Ro- 
manism. But,  says  Geijer,  "We  should  do  him  too 
much  honor  if  we  should  suppose  that  he  had  pene- 
trated to  the  core  of  the  question.  He  loved  hie- 
rarchic like  all  other  pomp,  and  devised  ceremonies 
for  divine  worship,  as  he  did  arms  for  the  provinces, 
decorations  for  his  buildings,  and  additions  to  his 
titles." 

On  such  a  nature  it  was  easy  for  the  Pope  to  work. 
The  queen's  zeal  was  stimulated  by  the  praises  which 
she  received  from  Rome.  Cardinal  Stanislaus  Hosius 
wrote  to  her  that  she  was  extolled  to  heaven  on  ac- 
count of  her  care  for  the  eternal  salvation  of  her  hus- 
band. "He  had  already,"  the  letter  continued,  "in- 
timated his  wish  that  some  learned  and  pious  Jesuits 
should  be  sent  to  him.  Hereof  the  whole  city  con- 
verses." In  another  letter  the  cardinal  reproaches  her 
"for  suffering  herself  to  be  persuaded  by  the  king  to 
take  the  Holy  Supper  under  both  forms  of  bread  and 
wine,  instructing  her  how  to  answer  the  objections  of 
her  husband,  and  at  the  same  time  bring  him  back 
gradually  to  the  bosom  of  the  Church.  She  must  ex- 
hort him  first  to  restore  priests  to  office,  and  to  resume 
the  celebration  of  the  mass.  If  that  were  done,  then 
the  Church,  as  a  tender  mother,  might  even  permit  the 
use  of  the  cup  to  the  laity.     This  was  written  in  1572. 


The  Reformation  in  Sweden.  199 

Two  years  later  the  same  promise  is  repeated,  with  the 
condition,  however,  that  some  token  of  return  to  the  use 
of  the  mass  must  be  given  before  negotiations  can  be 
opened  for  the  restoration  of  the  cup.  In  a  letter  to 
the  king  in  1576  the  cardinal  expresses  his  gratification 
that  the  return  to  the  ceremonies  was  being  gradually 
effected;  and  in  another  letter,  of  October,  1577,  he 
thanks  God  for  the  king's  conversion.  When  the  two 
Jesuits,  Florentius  Fayt  and  Laurentius  Novegus,  came 
to  Stockholm  they  gave  themselves  out  as  evangelical 
preachers.  From  the  labors  of  the  latter  the  cardinal 
expected  great  results,  because  as  a  Norwegian  he 
could  make  himself  easily  understood  by  the  people. 
"  Seek  above  all,"  he  wrote  to  John  Herbst,  the  queen's 
court  chaplain,  "that  he  may  obtain  a  church  wherein 
to  preach.  Let  him  avoid  offense.  Let  him  extol 
faith  to  heaven,  and  depreciate  works  without  faith, 
preaching  Christ  as  the  only  Mediator  and  His  cross  as 
the  only  means  of  salvation;  thereupon  let  him  show 
that  nothing  else  has  been  preached  in  the  Papacy." 
That  Rome  regarded  all  measures  against  Protestants 
as  lawful,  appears  not  only  from  this  incident,  but  from 
another  which  occurred  just  previous  to  the  same  pe- 
riod. When  Henry  of  Valois,  in  1 573,  was  elected  king 
of  Poland,  the  cardinal  advises  that  the  Protestants 
there  abiding  should  be  fed  with  hopes  until  after  the 
coronation;  but  if  the  king  had  even  promised  them  on 
oath,  the  freedom  of  their  religion,  he  was  not  bound 
to  its  observance. 

Condition  of  Tne  deplorable  condition  into  which  the 
the  Church  church  had  fallen  during  the  reign  of  Eric, 
°of  CCKing  greatly  favored  the  designs  of  John.  He 
John.  made  it  to  appear  that  he  was  laboring  for 

a  restoration,  rather  than  for  the  overthrow,  of  the  old 


200  The  Reformation  in  Sweden. 

church  order.  In  the  Articles  concerning  the  clergy, 
issued  in  1569  and  1574,  complaints  are  made  that  ig- 
norant students  were  called  to  the  priesthood;  that 
homicides,  topers,  and  adulterers,  exercised  it  with  im- 
punity; that  many  clergymen  neglected  their  calling  for 
trade  and  other  secular  business;  that  they  gave  no 
thought  to  their  sermon,  before  they  came  into  the 
church,  and  then  read  out  of  the  Book  of  Homilies 
what  came  to  hand,  whether  or  not  it  might  suit  the 
gospel  of  the  day;  that  they  went  to  the  altar  in  torn 
or  unclean  vestments,  and  dispensed  the  sacraments 
with  foul  hands.  Many  churches  had  fallen  into  decay 
and  ruin.  The  church  plate  had  disappeared  so  en- 
tirely that  clay  vessels  were  used  in  the  dispensation 
of  the  sacraments,  notwithstanding,  as  the  king  com- 
plained, the  clergy  had  silver  cups  in  their  own  houses. 
The  nobility  and  possessors  of  the  tithes  held  not  only 
the  crown's  two-thirds  of  the  tithes,  but  also  often  that 
portion  of  them  which  was  intended  for  the  mainte- 
nance of  the  church  and  clergy.  The  king  issued  re- 
peated prohibitions  against  this  abuse,  and  expended 
large  sums  on  the  erection  and  improvement  of  the 
churches,  and  on  the  provision  of  proper  vessels  and 
suitable  decorations  for  the  orderly  and  reverent  ad- 
ministration of  the  ordinances  of  divine  worship.  He 
would  even  provide  for  the  reclothing  of  ragged  priests 
who  came  in  his  way.  All  these  measures  tended  to  rec- 
oncile the  clergy  and  the  people  to  his  innovations  in 
the  public  service,  so  long  as  they  could  regard  them 
as  evidences  of  his  mere  harmless  eccentricity,  or  his 
high  ritualistic  tastes. 


The  Reformation  in  Sweden.  201 

The  Kirk's  The  aged  and  faithful  archbishop,  a  decided 
Ordinance  Protestant,  endeavored  to  counteract  the  de- 
°Laur1ntL  sign  of  the  king,  and  at  the  same  time  to 
Petri.  reform   the   deplorable  evils  of  the  church. 

He  drew  up  in  1571  the  Kirk's  Ordinance,  which  was 
sanctioned  by  a  synod.  Some  of  its  regulations  were 
new,  called  out  by  the  evils  of  the  time,  and  others 
were  a  republication  of  regulations  which  had  fallen 
into  disuse  or  neglect.  A  new  regulation,  in  the  Prot- 
estant direction,  provided  that  a  call  or  an  assent  of 
the  congregation  should  be  obtained  before  a  priest 
should  be  instituted.  To  the  bishop  was  given  the 
power  of  refusing  ordination  to  candidates  whom  he 
judged  to  be  incompetent  or  unworthy.  The  candi- 
date for  ordination  was  required  to  be  at  least  ''toler- 
ably conversant  with  the  Holy  Scriptures."  He  was 
bound  to  understand  the  Latin  language  and  to  be 
able  to  speak  it.  If  he  wished  to  acquire  Greek  or  He- 
brew he  must  provide  masters  for  himself.  The  bishop 
was  to  take  care  that  the  people  should  be  instructed 
in  the  catechism;  and  no  one  was  admitted  to  full 
membership  with  the  church  who  did  not  know  the 
Creed,  the  Lord's  Prayer,  and  the  Ten  Commandments. 
The  minister  was  allowed  to  take  his  sermon  from  the 
Book  of  Homilies.  A  singular  regulation  provided 
that  a  person  who  had  been  excluded  from  commun- 
ion for  notorious  transgressions  might  remain  in  the 
church  during  the  sermon,  but  must  afterwards  with- 
draw; if  he  resisted,  and  would  not  go  out,  divine  ser- 
vice was  to  close.  The  old  and  the  severest  church 
penalty  was  retained,  which  compelled  great  offenders, 
and  those  especially  who  were  guilty  of  fornication  and 
adultery,  to  stand  naked  before  the  church  door.  The 
seven  cathedrals  of  the  kingdom  were  to  be  provided 


202  The  Reformation  in  Sweden. 

with  "a  modest  staff  of  officials — the  bishop,  his  com- 
missary or  chancellor,  an  assistant  minister,  the  acting 
rector  of  the  church,  a  schoolmaster,  a  teacher  of  the- 
ology, a  penitentiary,  and  a  church  warden.  The 
bishop  was  to  be  elected  by  the  clergy,  and  a  selected 
number  of  the  laity.  The  episcopal  title  was  again 
generally  assumed  under  the  reign  of  John,  though  not 
enforced  by  canon. 

We  can  see  in  these  regulations  the  effort  of  the 
bishop  and  the  clergy  to  resist  the  innovations  of  the 
king  and  to  retain,  and  even  to  increase,  the  simplicity 
in  the  performance  of  the  services  which  prevailed 
under  Gustavus.  But,  as  we  shall  see,  these  efforts 
were  of  little  avail.  An  opposite  policy  was  adopted 
by  the  successor  of  the  archbishop.  The  venerable 
friend  of  King  Gustavus  died  two  years  after  these  reg- 
ulations were  made — regulations  which  seem  not  to 
have  been  enforced,  beyond  the  bounds  of  his  own  im- 
mediate jurisdiction. 

Laurentius  After  tne  death  of  the  archbishop,  1 572,  which 
Petri  Gothus  removed  the  greatest  obstacle  to  his  reaction- 
ma  e  Abp.  ary  policy,  King  John  more  openly  proclaimed 
and  prosecuted  his  designs.  He  caused  his  own  son-in- 
law,  Laurentius  Petri  Gothus,  to  be  chosen  archbishop. 
The  new  primate  was  a  man  of  compliant  temper,  and 
by  a  devotion  to  the  works  of  the  Fathers,  upon  which 
he  held  prelections  in  Upsala,  had  persuaded  himself 
that  a  system  midway  between  Romanism  and  Prot- 
estantism was  that  which  had  prevailed  in  the  primi- 
tive church,  and  should  be  adopted  in  Sweden.  He 
drew  up  and  subscribed,  and  induced  some  of  the  clergy 
to  subscribe — for  they  were  not  enforced  by  synodical 
action — seventeen  articles  in  which  the  restoration  of 
convents,  veneratien  of  the  saints,  prayers  for  the  dead, 


The  Reformation  in  Sweden.  203 

and  most  of  the  ceremonies  of  the  old  church,  were  ap- 
proved. He  was  consecrated  with  full  hierarchical  pomp 
in  1575.  There  was  used  on  that  occasion  for  the  first 
time  the  episcopal  mantle,  miter,  and  crosier,  which  the 
Swedish  bishops  afterwards  retained,  although  at  that 
time  they  were  much  opposed  by  the  clergy.  By  the 
king's  express  command  the  ceremony  of  anointing  the 
bishop  was  also  performed.  It  was  in  the  following  year 
that  the  Jesuits  of  whom  I  have  spoken  came  to  Stock- 
holm. They  were  received  without  suspicion  as  good 
Lutherans.  As  they  were  highly  esteemed  for  their 
learning,  and  the  mass  of  the  clergy  were  but  little  edu- 
cated, the  king  required  all  of  them  that  were  in  Stock- 
holm to  attend  their  lectures.  The  king  caused  them  to 
hold  public  disputations  in  which  he  himself  took  part, 
and  inveighed  vehemently  against  the  Pope,  but  allowed 
himself  to  be  easily  confuted.  Numerous  secret  con- 
versions were  effected.  The  scheme  of  the  king  seemed 
about  to  succeed.  But  the  Pope,  Gregory  XIII.,  began 
to  be  impatient  of  these  slow  and  secret  proceedings, 
and  at  the  degree  in  which  the  king  assumed  to  guide 
and  control  the  affairs  of  the  church.  When  the  king 
proposed  to  the  Pope  that  the  priests  should  for  the 
present  read  inaudibly  the  invocations  to  saints,  and 
the  prayers  for  the  dead,  the  latter  demanded  that 
such  methods  should  be  abandoned,  and  exhorted 
the  king,  if  he  were  earnest  and  conscientious  in  the 
matter,  to  make  a  public  profession  of  the  Catholic 
faith. 

The   Liturgy  which,  as  we  have   seen,  was 

The  Liturgy  °J  '  .  ' 

not  univer-  constructed  according  to  the  views  of  the 
sally    ac-    king,  under  the  direction  of  Peter  Herbst, 

cepted.  >       1         1     •  1       t  •     at 

his  queen  s  chaplain,  and  the  Jesuit  Norvegus, 
was  published  by  the  authority  of  the  archbishop,  who 


204  The  Reformation  in  Sweden. 

assumed  its  authorship;  and  was  also  sanctioned  by 
Erasmus,  Bishop  of  Westeras.  But  it  was  not  univer- 
sally approved  and  adopted.  The  Duke  Charles,  when 
earnestly  requested  by  the  king  to  introduce  it  in  the 
regions  under  his  jurisdiction,  peremptorily  refused; 
and  reminded  him  that  according  to  their  father's  will 
they  were  bound  not  to  make  or  allow  any  alteration 
in  the  established  religion  of  the  kingdom.  The  court- 
iers declared  that  the  bishops  and  clergy  were  bound 
to  obey  the  archbishop  as  their  spiritual  father,  who, 
by  the  very  nature  of  his  office,  was  invested  with  pa- 
triarchal authority.  The  king  issued  a  decree  that 
henceforth  the  election  of  a  bishop  should  not  rest 
with  the  clergy  of  the  diocese  alone;  but  that  the 
Archbishop  and  Archchapter  of  Upsala,  should  be 
co-electors.  All  ecclesiastical  promotions  were  con- 
ditioned upon  the  acceptance  of  the  Liturgy.  The 
king  required  the  ministers  of  Stockholm  to  send  to 
him  their  opinion  of  it  in  writing.  They  replied, 
through  Mr.  Abraham,  Rector  of  their  High  School, 
that  it  seemed  to  them  that  it  must  be  the  design, 
as  it  certainly  was  the  tendency,  of  the  introduction 
of  the  Liturgy,  to  restore  Romanism.  This  stout  an- 
swer brought  down  upon  them  the  wrath  of  the  king, 
and  their  dismissal  from  office,  and  the  imprisonment 
of  some  of  them.  They  replied  that  although  they  had 
subscribed  the  Liturgy  in  its  first  form,  various  addi- 
tions had  since  been  made  to  it,  which  they  could  not, 
with  a  good  conscience,  sanction.  They  expressed  a 
willingness  to  appeal  to  and  abide  by  the  decisions 
of  a  free  Synod  called  to  consider  the  subject. 

Accordingly  a  Synod  was  held  at  Stockholm  in 
which  all  the  clergy  of  Sweden,  with  the  exception 
of  those  under  the  government  of  Duke  Charles,  were 


The  Reformation  in  Sweden.  205 

represented.  The  power  of  the  king  and  the  influence 
of  the  archbishop  secured  a  majority  in  favor  of  the 
Liturgy.  An  article  was  adopted  which  prepared  the 
way  for  the  reception  of  the  full  Romish  doctrine  of  a 
propitiatory  sacrifice  of  Christ  in  the  mass,  by  the  as- 
sertion of  an  unbloody  sacrifice.  Mr.  Abraham,  and 
the  clergy  of  Stockholm  and  the  professors  of  Upsala, 
vigorously  and  boldly  contested  this  position,  and  re- 
sisted the  introduction  of  the  Liturgy.  They  were 
immediately  deposed  and  put  in  prison.  The  king 
found  little  difficulty  in  bringing  the  National  Diet 
to  sign  the  Liturgy  and  to  pass  a  decree  that  who- 
soever should  oppose  the  decisions  of  the  Synod  and 
refuse  to  accept  it  should  be  accounted  enemies  of  the 
State.  And  with  all  this  influence  and  these  penalties 
in  support  of  the  action  of  the  Synod  and  the  Diet  the 
king  required  three  other  eminent  professors  of  Upsala, 
who  were  not  present  at  the  Synod,  to  give  him  their 
opinion  concerning  these  measures  in  writing,  and  felt 
assured  that  they  would  be  intimidated  from  giving 
an  adverse  answer.  But  they  absolutely  rejected  the 
Liturgy,  and  the  doctrinal  decrees  of  the  Synod;  and 
argued  at  length  against  them  on  the  authority  of 
Luther  and  other  eminent  divines.  They  also  appealed 
to  the  great  Universities  of  Germany — Wittemberg, 
Leipsic,  Helmstadt  and  Frankford  —  for  their  judg- 
ment in  the  matter.  These  all  and  earnestly  con- 
demned the  Liturgy,  and  denounced  it  as  a  palpable 
device  to  reinstate  the  Church  of  Rome  in  its  old  su- 
premacy in  Sweden.  These  emphatic  Protestant  tes- 
timonies and  demonstrations  very  considerably  checked 
the  progress  of  the  Romeward  movement. 


2o6  The  Reformation  in  Sweden. 

The  Kin  *  *n  ^c  autumn  preceding-  this  Synod  the 
Embassy  to  king  had  sent  Pontus  de  la  Gardie  and  Peter 
the  Pope.  Fechten  on  an  embassy  to  the  Pope.  They 
were  shipwrecked  in  the  Baltic,  and  Fechten  perished; 
but  his  colleague  proceeded  on  his  mission.  John  re- 
quested the  Pope  to  enjoin  the  Catholic  churches 
throughout  the  world  to  offer  prayers  for  the  restor- 
ation of  the  Catholic  religion  in  the  north  of  Europe, 
but  not  to  specify  Sweden  by  name.  He  begged  that 
the  cup  should  be  given  to  the  laity;  that  the  bishops 
should  be  judged  by  the  king  in  capital  cases  and 
accusations  of  treason;  that  no  claims  should  be  made 
on  church  estates  that  had  been  confiscated;  that  the 
college  erected  in  Stockholm,  where  already  secret 
instructions  in  Catholic  doctrines  were  given,  might 
receive  the  Papal  confirmation,  and  the  teachers  be 
exempted  for  the  present  from  wearing  the  monkish 
garb;  that  King  Gustavus  and  King  Eric  and  all  the 
nobility  who  had  died  out  of  the  communion  of  the 
church,  should  not  be  disturbed  in  their  graves;  that 
priests'  marriages  should  be  allowed,  while  celibacy 
should  be  encouraged  and  lauded  as  the  better  life; 
that  the  king  might  without  sin  join  in  the  worship 
of  the  heretics,  until  the  Catholic  rites  and  services 
should  be  established.  John  assured  the  Pope  that 
the  way  was  prepared  for  the  reinstatement  of  the 
Catholic  worship  by  the  restored  dignity  and  splendor 
of  the  services,  by  the  renewal  of  several  abolished 
holy  days,  by  the  introduction  of  fast  days  and  con- 
fession, by  the  restoration  of  convents,  which  had  al- 
ready begun,  and  by  the  education  of  several  noble 
Swedish  youths  in  Rome,  Vienna,  and  other  Catholic 
cities. 


The  Reformation  in  Sweden.  207 

Mission  of  The  suggestions  of  King  John  were  by  no 
the  Jesuit  means  satisfactory  to  the  Pope.  They  al- 
AnthTny  lowed  far  too  much  power  in  ecclesiastical 
Possevin.  affairs  to  be  exercised  by  the  king,  to  be 
compatible  with  the  Pope's  claim  to  absolute,  univer- 
sal, unquestioned  and  unquestionable  authority.  Mean- 
while, disguising  his  dissatisfaction,  he  dispatched  Car- 
dinal Possevin  to  Stockholm  to  work  on  the  king's  mind 
and  bring  him  into  full  subjection  to  the  Papal  policy. 
In  order  to  avoid  a  clamor  among  the  people,  the  car- 
dinal came  not  as  a  Nuncio — which  he  was  in  fact— 
from  the  Pope,  but  as  the  representative  of  the  em- 
peror. At  Wadstena,  in  1578,  King  John  was  secretly 
reconciled  and  brought  into  full  communion  with  the 
Catholic  Church,  in  the  presence  of  the  cardinal.  From 
that  period  the  proceedings  of  the  king  in  favor  of  the 
Catholic  Church,  and  against  that  which  was  estab- 
lished, become  more  open.  No  doubt  could  longer 
remain  in  the  minds  of  the  Protestants  that  the  king 
was  resolutely  bent  on  the  full  restoration  not  only 
of  the  Catholic  worship,  but  of  the  Papal  power.  The 
Bishop  of  Linkoping,  Martin  Olaveson,  was  stripped 
of  his  Episcopal  robes  publicly  before  the  altar  of  his 
own  cathedral,  for  having  called  the  Pope  Antichrist. 
His  see  was  bestowed  on  the  infamous  Peter  Carlson, 
Ordinary  of  Calmar,  a  parasite  of  Eric,  who  was  pop- 
ularly believed  to  have  instigated  the  murder  of  the 
Stures.  All  passages  against  the  Pope  were  expelled 
from  the  Canticles.  Luther's  Catechism  was  banished 
from  the  schools.  New  silver  shrines  were  provided 
for  the  relics  of  saints,  which  were  brought  out  from 
the  midst  of  the  lumber  to  which  they  had  been  con- 
signed for  the  last  fifty  years.  An  abridgement  of 
Canon   Law  was   drawn   up  for  the   guidance   of  the 


208  The  Reformation  in  Sweden. 

Swedish  Church.  When  the  chair  of  the  archbishop 
became  vacant,  in  1579,  it  was  allowed  to  remain  un- 
occupied for  four  years,  in  the  hope  that  a  Romanist 
might  be  appointed.  Jesuits  under  manifold  disguises 
entered  the  kingdom.  John  designed  to  employ  them 
in  the  University,  which  he  caused  to  be  removed  from 
Upsala  to  Stockholm,  because  of  the  stout  resistance 
which  its  professors  continued  to  offer  to  his  designs. 
Many  Swedish  youths  were  sent  out  of  the  country  to 
be  educated  in  Jesuit  schools. 

Such  was  the  rapid  course  of  events  and  proceed- 
ings which  seemed  to  make  the  restoration  of  Roman- 
ism probable,  or  a  deadly  struggle  in  the  kingdom 
inevitable,  when  an  event  occurred  which  led  to  a 
reaction  in  the  mind  of  the  king,  and  to  a  pause  in 
the  aggressive  measures  which  he  had  begun.  The 
queen,  Catherine  Jagellonica,  whose  eminent  virtues 
were  admitted  by  all  classes  and  parties  in  Sweder>, 
died  in  1583.  From  that  time  the  advancing  wave 
of  Romish  influence,  which  seemed  about  to  overflow 
the  whole  land,  had  reached  its  highest  point  and 
began  to  recede.  We  should  call  it  one  of  the  insolu- 
ble mysteries  of  His  government  who  is  head  over  all 
things  to  His  Church,  that  the  orthodox  faith  of  the 
Christian  world  under  Constantine,  and  the  Protestant 
faith  of  a  kingdom  under  King  John  should  be,  or 
seem  to  be,  dependent  upon  the  fickle  minds  of  two 
unworthy  monarchs,  did  we  not  remember  that  neither 
does  God  govern  the  world,  nor  Christ  the  Church,  by 
the  annihilation  of  the  freedom  of  the  human  will. 


CHAPTER    X. 

THE   REIGN   OF   KING  JOHN   FROM    1 583,   TO   HIS 
DEATH,    1592. 

R  f  '  "\A7'^^'^  t^ie  archbishop  was  fully  con- 
tkeMindof  V  V  vinced  that  it  was  the  design  of  the 
the  Abp.  king  to  restore  the  Papal  power  in  Sweden, 
he  repented  of  his  agency  in  sanctioning  and  assuming 
the  authorship  of  the  Liturgy.  Nor  did  he  fail  to  ex- 
press to  the  king  his  regret  at  his  reactionary  meas- 
ures, which  had  led  to  a  system  which  was  neither 
Protestantism  nor  Romanism,  but  which  would  inevi- 
tably end  in  the  latter.  Perceiving,  however,  that  he 
exerted  no  influence  with  the  king,  and  feeling  that  he 
had  been  used  as  a  tool  to  further  an  object  which 
he  abhorred,  and  seeing  that  the  cardinal,  Possevin, 
had  acquired  absolute  ascendency  over  the  mind  of  the 
fickle  king,  he  was  brought,  through  jealousy  of  the  car- 
dinal and  disapproval  of  the  ends  aimed  at  by  the  king, 
into  a  hostile  attitude  of  mind,  the  blended  result  of 
mortification,  indignation,  and  penitence.  He  now 
openly  opposed  the  policy  which  he  had  been  the 
chief  agent  to  establish.  He  wrote,  and  published 
anonymously,  a  little  book  in  which  he  unsparingly 
exposed  the  intrigues  and  denounced  the  errors  of  the 
Church  of  Rome.  As  he  was  a  man  of  compliant,  ra- 
ther than  an  evil,  nature,  he  bitterly  bewailed  his  ac- 
quiescence in  measures,  whose  real  object  he  did  not 


210  The  Reformation  in  Sweden. 

discern,  which  threatened  to  bring  back  the  spiritual 
and  temporal  servitude  from  which  Sweden  had  been 
emancipated  by  the  heroic  efforts  of  Gustavus.  He 
died  in  the  course  of  the  following  year  under  the 
frowns  of  the  king,  the  hatred  of  the  people,  and  the 
reproaches  of  his  conscience. 

Notwithstanding  the  opposition  of  many  of 

PcYS  eClttlOtt 

of  those  who  the  most  eminent  men  in  the  kingdom  to 
opposed  the    j-}ie  Liturgy  and  to  measures  which  looked 

Liturgy.  oy 

to  the  restoration  of  the  Papacy,  the  king 
obstinately  persisted  in  his  policy.  That  opposition 
had  appeared  in  an  official  form  of  so  grave  a  charac- 
ter that  it  would  seem  calculated  to  make  one  even  as 
conceited  and  obstinate  as  John  to  pause.  When  a 
diet  was  summoned  to  consider  the  question  of  a  league 
between  Poland  and  Sweden  to  resist  the  progress  of 
the  Russians  in  Livonia  and  Esthonia,  that  body  de- 
voted more  attention  to  the  religious  condition  of  the 
country  than  to  the  object  for  which  they  were  sum- 
moned. They  represented  to  the  king  that  as  he  had 
introduced  many  innovations  in  the  religion  of  the 
country,  it  was  commonly  believed  that  he  intended  to 
restore  Catholicism;  and  they  therefore  entreated  him 
to  declare  in  the  presence  of  the  States  that  the  doc- 
trine of  the  Church  of  Sweden  was  agreeable  to  that 
of  the  primitive  Church;  to  take  measures  for  banish- 
ing the  Popish  books  that  had  been  introduced  into  the 
kingdom;  and  to  educate  the  prince  Sigismund  in  the 
Protestant  religion,  in  order  that  he  might  be  more  ac- 
ceptable to  the  people,  and  that  they  might  not  fear 
that,  on  his  accession,  he  would  force  them  to  become 
members  of  the  Church  of  Rome.  But  King  John  had 
passed  quite  beyond  any  influence  from  remonstrances 
like  these.     It  was  at  a  period  when  he  was  most  com- 


The  Reformation  in  Sweden.  211 

pletely  in  subjection  to  Possevin,  and  most  earnest  in 
his  purpose  to  restore  the  Papacy.  The  opposition  to 
the  Liturgy  had  found  more  or  less  emphatic  expres- 
sion from  1576  to  the  death  of  the  queen,  and  every- 
where it  had  been  met  with  persecution,  and  in  some 
cases  with  the  penalty  of  death.  The  king  complains 
in  1576  that  in  the  diocese  of  Skara,  Master  Maurice 
of  Bone  had  endeavored  to  raise  a  great  tumult  against 
it  among  councilors  and  nobles.  The  priest  was  ex- 
amined by  torture,  and  put  to  death  with  several  of 
his  followers.  In  1580  an  order  was  given  that  the 
revenues  of  those  clergymen  who  did  not  observe  the 
Liturgy  should  be  withheld;  in  1582  it  was  enforced 
under  heavier  penalties.  Priests  who  refused  obedi- 
ence were  deposed  and  imprisoned  or  driven  into 
exile.  Nothing  so  irritated  the  king  as  the  rejec- 
tion of  his  Liturgy.  He  even  inflicted  personal  vio- 
lence on  a  clergyman  of  Stockholm,  named  Scheffer, 
and  so  trampled  upon  him  that  the  poor  man's  health 
was  broken  for  the  remainder  of  his  life. 
„     ,.      .     After  the  death  of  the  queen  it  was  observed 

Reaction  in  rL 

the  Mind  of  that  the  zeal  of  the  king  for  the  restoration 
the  King.  Qf  ^Q  papacy  began  to  cool.  The  with- 
drawal of  her  influence  on  that  behalf  was  not  the 
only,  nor  perhaps  the  most  powerful,  cause  of  this 
change  of  feeling.  Political  resentments  contributed 
to  the  same  result.  He  had  solicited,  and  through  the 
mediation  of  the  Pope  he  had  hoped  to  obtain,  the  Ne- 
apolitan dukedoms  of  Bari  and  Rossini,  on  which  his 
wife  had  claims  from  her  mother,  Bona  Sforzia.  Nei- 
ther had  this  expectation  been  fulfilled,  nor  had  the 
promise  of  the  Pope  to  labor  for  the  interests  of  Sweden 
in  the  peace  between  Poland  and  Russia  been  kept. 
On  the  contrary,  the  treaty  negotiated  under  the  me- 


212  The  Reformation  in  Sweden. 

diation  of  Possevin  confirmed  the  Polish  claims  to  the 
Swedish  possessions  in  Livonia.  Not  long  after  these 
events  we  find  John  so  exasperated  against  the  Pope 
that  he  actually  began  to  persecute  the  Catholics. 
Laurence  Forss,  a  minister  of  Stockholm  who  had  be- 
come a  Catholic,  was  deposed  with  the  same  degrading 
ceremonies  which  had  been  employed  in  the  case  of 
the  Bishop  of  Linkoping  for  having  called  the  Pope 
Antichrist.  The  Jesuits  were  banished  from  the  realm, 
their  new  college  in  Stockholm  abolished,  and  the  in- 
struction of  its  students  assigned  to  Lutheran  profes- 
sors. By  a  proclamation  all  converts  to  the  Catholic 
Church  were  threatened  with  exile,  if  they  did  not 
speedily  recant.  While  the  king  was  in  this  mood  he 
turned  his  attention  for  a  time  to  the  Greek  Church, 
and  believed  that  by  connecting  himself  with  it  he 
might  still  retain  and  enforce  his  beloved  Liturgy. 
But  when  he  found  that  the  Greek  Church  was  even 
less  flexible  in  its  forms  than  the  Latin,  and  that  no 
departures  from  her  ritual  would  be  allowed,  he  settled 
down  on  his  original  purpose  of  enforcing  his  own 
mongrel  forms.  His  position  was  such  as  made  it  quite 
impossible  for  any  large  number  of  persons  who  had 
been  either  Protestants  or  Romanists  to  accept  his  sys- 
tem ex  ammo,  although  many  would  seemingly  acqui- 
esce in  it,  in  order  to  escape  punishment  or  acquire 
promotion. 

The  young  Prince  Sigismund  had  been  care- 
Characterof  fully  trained  by  his  mother  in  the  Catholic 
Prince  Sig-  faith.  On  her  death  bed  she  solemnly  ex- 
horted him  to  be  faithful  to  his  creed  and  to 
turn  a  deaf  ear  to  all  persuasions  to  apostatize.  The 
prince,  who  had  far  more  steadiness  of  character  than 
his   father,  though  with  much  less  intellectual  force, 


The  Reformation  in  Sweden.  213 

had  accepted  Catholicism  with  full  conviction,  and 
held  it  in  the  tight  grasp  with  which  narrow  minds 
hold  exclusive  systems,  and  threw  into  it  a  fervor  of 
zeal  which  became  almost  fanaticism.  It  was  in  vain 
that  the  senators  and  nobles  of  the  kingdom  endeavored 
to  induce  him  to  accept  the  Protestant  faith.  They 
made  no  impression  upon  him.  The  change  in  his 
father's  policy  after  his  mother's  death  seemed  to 
render  her  principles  and  her  character  all  the  more 
sacred  to  him.  When  the  nobles  who  attempted  to 
influence  him  stated  that  by  adhering  to  the  Roman 
Church  he  would  forfeit  his  right  of  succession  to  the 
crown,  he  answered  that  he  preferred  the  kingdom  of 
heaven  to  all  the  kingdoms  of  the  earth.  Dark  indeed 
seemed  the  prospects  of  Protestantism  in  Sweden.  A 
vascillating  and  arbitrary  king,  rooting  out  now  the 
Romanism  which  he  had  fostered  and  repressing  the 
Protestantism  which'  was  its  only  effective  antagonist, 
in  the  vain  attempt  to  establish  a  visionary  via  media  of 
his  own  invention  which  was  equally  repugnant  to  both 
parties — such  was  the  situation!  Between  two  sharply 
defined  systems,  which  differ  from  their  foundation  all  the 
way  up  to  their  ultimate  development,  there  can  be  no 
standing  place,  but  only  a  gulf  of  separation.  Via  media 
in  such  a  case  is  via  perditionis.  Add  to  this  deplorable 
present,  the  prospect  of  a  bigoted  young  Catholic  king 
as  the  successor  to  the  throne,  and  we  may  well  be- 
lieve that  the  hearts  of  all  true  Protestants  must  have 
had  forebodings  of  new  scenes  of  blood  and  sorrow. 
The  only  point  of  hope  on  which  their  eyes  could  rest 
was  Duke  Charles,  whose  decisive  character  and  great 
abilities  and  determined  resistance  of  the  Papal  pro- 
pagandism  in  his  provinces,  seemed  to  furnish  a  pledge 
that  when  the  inevitable  battle  between  the  two  sys- 


214  The  Reformation  in  Sweden. 

tems  should  commence,  Protestantism  would  have  in 

him  a  champion  and  leader  not  unworthy  of  his  heroic 

parentage. 

Hostile  At.    In  Reference  to  Temporal  Interests.    We  have 

tjJ.ude^°f    seen  how  treacherously  King  John  violated 

King    John  *  *>    J 

and  Duke  the  compact  by  which  he  and  Duke  Charles 
Charles.  were  to  exercise  an  equal  sovereignty.  The 
anomalous  relation  of  the  two  brothers,  and  the  conflict 
of  jurisdiction  between  the  crown  which  claimed  author- 
ity over  all  the  kingdom,  and  the  duke  who  asserted  his 
independent  sovereignty  over  the  provinces  assigned  to 
him,  led  to  many  bitter  conflicts  and  mutual  recrimina- 
tions. War  would  certainly  have  ensued  between  the 
brothers  had  not  John  been  conscious  that  he  would  be 
supported  by  no  partisans  within  the  jurisdiction  of 
Charles;  and  that  Charles  had  some  avowed  and  many 
more  secret  and  earnest  friends,  who  would  rally  at  once 
around  a  banner  on  which  the  venerable  name  of  Gustavus 
and  the  word  Protestantism  should  be  inscribed.  That 
the  claim  of  Charles  was  in  conformity  to  the  settlement 
made  by  Gustavus  and  sanctioned  by  the  States,  is  clear. 
His  independent  jurisdiction  was  not  to  be  interfered 
with,  and  when  the  emergencies  of  national  politics 
called  for  the  united  action  of  all  Sweden,  this  was  to 
be  obtained,  not  by  the  authority  of  the  king  over  the 
domain  of  Charles,  but  by  a  general  diet  of  the  States 
gathered  from  every  part  of  the  kingdom.  It  was  a 
system  indeed  which  could  not  work  without  constant 
friction;  but  whether  wise  or  unwise  it  was  the  su- 
preme law  of  the  land.  The  will  of  the  king  declared 
indeed  on  the  one  side  that  the  princes  should  have 
no  right  to  sever  themselves  or  their  fiefs  from  the 
crown  of  Sweden;  that  they  were  bound  to  be  true 
to  the  king,  and  obliged  to  assist  him  in  conflicts  with 


The  Reformation  in  Sweden.  215 

foreign  powers  with  the  largest  force  which  they  could 
raise;  but,  on  the  other  side,  the  king  says  that  "the 
principalities  are  delivered  up  to  them  with  all  their 
appurtenances  and  advantages  as  we  have  possessed 
the  same  on  behalf  of  the  crown  without  exception!'  He 
adds:  "Our  dear  sons,  as  well  he  who  comes  into  the 
throne  and  government,  as  the  others  with  their  heirs, 
shall  in  relation  to  those  affairs  on  which  the  general 
welfare  of  the  realm  depends,  undertake,  transact,  or 
conclude,  nothing,  be  it  peace  or  war  or  compacts  or 
alliances,  important  to  the  State  unless  it  be  done  with 
the  counsel  and  assent  of  all  the  estates  and  divers  of 
the  chief  men  of  the  realm."  It  would  be  difficult  to 
express  a  conjoint  reign  more  distinctly,  especially  as 
each  of  the  brothers  is  even  allowed,  in  cases  where 
manifest  advantages  can  be  gained  for  Sweden,  and 
time  does  not  allow  a  common  deliberation,  to  follow 
his  own  resolution.  In  short,  Charles  was  not  the 
king's  viceroy,  but  a  sovereign  prince  with  a  more  inde- 
pendent and  looser  relation  to  the  sovereign  power  than 
that  now  held  by  the  separate  German  kingdoms  to 
the  emperor  of  Germany. 

In  Reference  to  Religion.  Even  if  differences  between 
the  brothers  in  reference  to  secular  interests  could  have 
been  adjusted,  it  was  impossible  that  Charles  could  be 
at  cordial  peace  with  John,  so  long  as  the  latter  per- 
sisted in  demanding  that  he  should  accept  and  enforce 
his  Liturgy.  Charles  constantly  replied  that  he  would 
not  depart  by  a  hair's  breadth  from  the  doctrine  and 
polity  and  ritual  which  had  been  laid  down,  after  God's 
Word,  by  his  father,  and  which  he  had  solemnly  enjoined 
his  sons  to  observe  and  defend.  All  negotiations  on 
this  subject  were  entirely  fruitless.  When  the  king 
ordered  the  use  of  his  Liturgy  throughout  the  kingdom. 


2i6  The  Reformation  in  Sweden. 

Charles  forbade  it  within  his  principality,  and  adhered 
to  the  Kirk's  Ordinances  of  1571.  He  was  sustained  in 
this  position  by  his  clergy  and  people;  and  he  protected 
and  favored  those  who  were  persecuted  by  the  king, 
and  fled  to  him;  "  because,"  he  writes  to  the  king,  "  we 
profess  ourselves  of  the  religion  by  which  they  hold." 
The  Bishop  of  Linkoping,  whom  John  had  deprived, 
was  nominated  by  Charles  pastor  of  Nykoping.  The 
theological  professors  of  Upsala,  five  of  whom  at  differ- 
ent times  had  been  deprived  and  imprisoned  on  ac- 
count of  the  Liturgy,  enjoyed  his  protection;  and  one  of 
them,  Peter  Jonson,  was  raised  to  the  Bishopric  of  Streng- 
ness.  The  preachers  of  Stockholm  who  rejected  the 
Liturgy  also  fled  to  him  and  were  favorably  received. 
Many  retracted  the  assent  to  the  new  service  which 
they  had  given  under  pressure  and  threats,  after  they 
had  become  convinced  that  John  intended,  or  that  his 
measures  would  lead  to,  the  restoration  of  Romanism. 
Reports  were  circulated  through  all  the  kingdom  that 
the  late  archbishop  had  died  in  agonies  of  conscience. 
In  the  year  1587  so  numerous  had  the  refugees  into 
Charles'  principality  become  that  the  king  threatened 
war,  unless  his  Liturgy  were  adopted,  and  these  fugi- 
tives sent  back.  Charles  calmly  replied  that  he  would 
leave  the  question  of  the  acceptance  of  the  Liturgy  to 
the  clergy;  and  he  made  no  promise  of  the  restoration 
of  the  refugees.  The  Liturgy  was  condemned,  as 
Charles  was  sure  it  would  be,  at  a  synod  held  at  Streng- 
ness.  The  king  vented  his  wrath  upon  them  in  a  violent 
letter,  in  which  he  called  the  clergy  unlearned  smatter- 
ers,  ass-heads,  Satanists,  and  declared  that  they  should 
be  treated  as  outlaws  throughout  his  dominions. 

The  Red  Book  of  John,  as  his  Liturgy  was  called,  was 
thus  the  cause  of  the  most  perilous  misunderstanding 


The  Reformation  in  Sweden.  217 

between  the  brothers;  and  so  violent  was  the  strain,  that 
war  ever  seemed  upon  the  point  of  breaking  out.  Men 
saw  in  Charles  the  faithful  son  and  representative  of 
Gustavus,  whose  name  was  more  and  more  venerated  as 
time,  and  the  contrast  with  his  successors,  manifested 
his  greatness.  They  accepted  him  also  as  a  champion 
of  the  reformation,  not  only  from  political  and  patriotic 
motives,  but  also  from  profound  religious  convictions. 
It  was  in  fact  the  same  struggle  of  principles,  though 
under  somewhat  different  forms  and  watchwords,  which 
was  convulsing  Bohemia  and  Austria;  and  seemed  about 
to  culminate  in  the  restoration  of  the  Papacy  over  all 
the  countries  of  Europe,  except  England  and  Scotland. 
When  we  look  forward  a  few  years  and  see  how  on  the 
labors  of  that  great  hero,  Gustavus  Adolphus, — the 
noble  knight,  the  consummate  general,  the  pure  and 
earnest  Christian, — the  salvation  of  periled  Protestant- 
ism in  Europe  depended,  and  how  by  his  victories  the 
thirty  years'  war  resulted  in  securing  the  rights  of  Prot- 
estant States,  and  remember  that  it  was  the  fidelity  of 
Charles  which  made  it  possible  for  Adolphus  to  succeed 
to  a  Protestant  throne  and  kingdom,  we  perceive  that 
we  are  not  dealing  with  an  insignificant  struggle  in  a 
small  and  distant  kingdom,  whose  issue  would  not  af- 
fect the  great  interests  of  Europe  and  the  world;  but 
we  recognize  that  we  are  spectators  of  an  arena  where 
champions  for  the  truth  are  in  the  process  of  training 
for  a  victorious  struggle  which  will  entitle  them  to  the 
gratitude  and  admiration  of  all  succeeding  time. 
John's  sec-  In  less  than  a  year  after  the  death  of  the 
oiid     Mar-    queen,  King  John   married   Gunilla   Bielke, 

riage.     and  .  ,  _ ,  r  ,         , 

its     Come-    a  maiden  of  but  sixteen  years  of  age,  daugn- 

quences.         ter    0f  a    counselor    of  state,    John    Bielke. 
The  marriage  was  celebrated  with  great  pomp,  in  Feb- 


218  The  Reformation  in  Sweden. 

ruary,  1585,  at  the  castle  of  Westeras.  The  young  wife 
favored,  as  far  as  she  could  without  incurring  the  wrath 
of  the  king,  the  opponents  of  the  Liturgy.  But  not 
even  her  great  influence  could  deter  the  king  from  per- 
sisting in  pressing  it  upon  the  kingdom.  It  had  be- 
come a  question  in  which  he  felt  that  his  royal  prero- 
gative and  kingly  dignity  were  involved.  But  inasmuch 
as  their  marriage  had  offended  all  his  kindred,  and  in- 
creased the  alienation  of  Charles,  the  king  became 
seriously  alarmed  lest  his  enemies  might  by  the  aid 
of  his  brother  overthrow  him;  and  was  thus  led  to 
court  and  to  bestow  new  favors  upon  the  nobility  in 
order  that  he  might  rely  upon  their  support.  The 
policy  was,  in  good  measure,  successful;  for  the  court- 
iers and  nobility  were  well  aware  that  they  could  hope 
for  no  favoritism,  or  increase  of  their  privileges,  from 
the  stern  and  austere  Charles,  if  he  should  ascend  the 
throne.  And  yet,  notwithstanding  this  new  rally  of 
the  favored  nobility  to  his  support,  the  apprehensions 
of  John,  in  consequence  of  the  vehement  disapproval 
of  his  marriage  by  all  his  kindred,  were  rather  in- 
creased than  diminished.  His  children  by  his  former 
marriage,  Sigismund  and  Ann,  saw  with  no  pleasant 
feeling  one  of  the  waiting  maids  of  their  mother  ad- 
vanced to  the  position  of  their  queen  and  step-mother. 
The  sisters  of  John  wrote  bitter  letters  to  him  on  the 
subject;  and  received  from  him  and  the  spirited  young 
queen  defiant  and  bitter  letters  in  reply.  Charles  had 
endeavored  to  dissuade  the  king  from  this  marriage, 
and  refused  to  be  present  at  its  celebration.  And  so 
the  alienation  of  the  brothers  was  constantly  on  the 
increase.  John  was  so  nervously  anxious  about  the 
designs  of  his  brother  that  when,  in  1585,  he  passed 
through   a   portion    of   his   principality,    he   hastened 


The  Reformation  in  Sweden.  219 

through  it  under  the  apprehension  that  he  might  be 
captured;  and  refused  to  allow  Sigismund  to  engage 
in  hunting  lest  Charles  might  lay  an  ambush  for  him. 
Charles  showed  the  same  distrust  of  his  brother  by  re- 
fusing to  attend  the  Diet  of  Wadstena  without  a  safe- 
conduct.  It  was  given,  and  Charles  attended  the  Diet; 
but  the  new  influence  of  the  king  with  the  nobility  en- 
abled him  to  impose  some  restrictions  upon  the  au- 
thority of  Charles,  to  which  he  was  either  obliged  or 
felt  it  policy  to  succumb.  But  upon  the  subject  of  the 
Liturgy  he  refused  to  yield,  according  to  the  language 
which  he  had  formerly  used  to  his  brother,  by  a  single 
hair's  breadth. 

Election  at  first  declined.  On  the  death  of 
figtsZuJd  Stephen,  King  of  Poland,  his  widow  Anne, 
totheThrone  the  aunt  of  Sigismund,  at  once  labored  for 
^  *  '  his  election.  She  was  aided  in  this  effort 
by  delegates  sent  by  King  John  to  second  the  scheme 
—Eric  Sparre  and  Eric  Brahe.  The  Estates  of  Sweden 
were  not  consulted  in  the  matter.  While  the  negotia- 
tion was  in  progress  Duke  Charles  gave,  as  he  was 
asked  to  do,  renewed  pledges  that  he  would  remain 
true  to  Sigismund  as  heir  to  the  Swedish  throne;  and 
only  made  the  reservation  that  Esthonia  should  not 
be  ceded  to  Poland,  but  should  be  reserved  for  himself. 
There  was  no  difficulty  in  the  matter  of  religion;  for 
Poland  required  that  their  king  should  be  a  Catholic, 
and  Sigismund  would  be  nothing  else.  But  other  con- 
ditions to  the  acceptance  of  the  throne  were  displeasing 
to  John  and  to  his  son.  These  were — that  Esthonia 
should  revert  to  Poland;  that  Sigismund,  after  his 
father's  death,  should  be  king  of  Sweden,  and  trans- 
mit it  to  his  male  heir;  that  in  cases  of  alleged  neces- 
sity he  might  go  to  Sweden,  if  Poland  gave  her  consent; 


220  The  Reformation  in  Sweden. 

that  he  should  keep  a  fleet,  at  his  own  charge,  in 
Sweden  (when  he  became  king)  which  he  should  lend 
to  the  Poles  when  they  were  at  war  with  Russia — that 
he  might  bring  foreign  troops  to  his  aid  in  war  only 
on  condition  that  he  should  himself  pay  them.  He 
should  not  make  use  of  Swedish  counselors  in  Poland 
and  should  have  only  Poles  and  Lithuanians  for  his 
guards,  and  give  fiefs  and  offices  in  the  kingdom  to 
them  alone.  These  high  demands,  coupled  with  the 
fact  that,  while  they  were  yet  under  consideration,  the 
Archduke  Maxmilian  of  Austria  was  elected  by  a  mi- 
nority party  of  Poles  which  it  became  necessary  to  re- 
press by  force  of  arms,  and  the  fear  of  committing  his 
only  son  and  heir  to  so  turbulent  a  kingdom,  induced 
King  John,  Avith  the  glad  assent  of  Sigismund,  to  re- 
ject the  proffered  crown.  But  his  unscrupulous  agent, 
Sparre,  secured  his  consent  by  disguising  from  him, 
and  even  denying,  that  the  surrender  of  Esthonia  was 
one  of  the  conditions  of  the  election. 

The  Statutes  of  Calmar.  The  evils  of  the  subservi- 
ency of  John  to  the  nobles,  which  he  had  shown  in 
order  to  fortify  himself  against  Charles,  and  of  the  re- 
newal of  their  privileges,  which  had  so  often  nullified 
the  power  of  the  throne,  and  which  it  was  the  life-work 
of  Gustavus  to  destroy,  now  became  apparent.  A  new 
code  of  statutes,  drawn  up  by  the  accomplished  and 
subtle  Sparre,  is  introduced  by  exaggerated  exaltation 
of  the  position  and  privileges  of  the  nobility.  It  is 
declared  that  to  the  nobility  of  Sweden  belong  high 
reverence  and  honor,  since  they  have  ever  held  the 
chief  rank  after  kings,  from  whom  many  of  them  are 
descended  and  some  of  whom  have  been  elected  to 
the  throne.  It  is  therefore  to  be  understood  that 
hereafter  there  are  certain  kinds  of  court  service  which 


The  Reformation  in  Sweden.  221 

they  shall  not  be  called  upon  or  expected  to  render, 
and  not  allowed  to  render  even  if  they  profess  a  will- 
ingness or  a  desire  to  do  so.  They  are  not  to  be  em- 
ployed as  guards  and  lackeys  and  servitors  in  the  royal 
palace.  Thus  it  is  seen  that,  in  order  to  secure  a  de- 
fense against  Charles,  King  John  had  come  into  bond- 
age to  a  proud  and  overbearing  nobility. 

Purport  of  the  Calmar  Statutes.  After  this  omi- 
nous introduction  the  statutes  proceed  to  declare  the 
objects  to  be  accomplished  through  their  enactment. 
The  number  and  minuteness  of  the  conditions  and 
regulations  on  the  part  of  both  kingdoms,  with  a  view 
to  the  maintenance  respectively  of  their  rights  and 
privileges,  show  distinctly  the  consciousness  of  both 
parties  of  the  extreme  difficulty  on  the  part  of  a  con- 
scientious or  bigoted  Catholic  king  of  one  country  to 
govern  satisfactorily  another  kingdom  which  was  de- 
cidedly and  resolutely  Protestant.  Their  arrangements 
and  conditions  proved  that  it  was  regarded  as  extremely 
difficult;  and  the  event  showed,  as  it  has  often  else- 
where been  shown,  that  it  was  impossible. 

The  council  of  Sweden  prevailed  upon  John  to  in- 
sist upon  certain  conditions  to  be  observed  by  Sigis- 
mund,  when  he  should  become  king,  which  it  is  evi- 
dent that  the  latter,  as  a  faithful  Catholic,  could  not 
intend  to  perform.  When  Sigismund,  as  king,  should 
come  into  Sweden  he  should  not  bring  with  him  any 
Romish  priests;  and  he  should  grant  the  Romish  priest- 
hood in  the  kingdom  no  greater  privileges  than  they 
already  enjoyed.  In  Poland  he  should  not  oppress  any 
Protestant  officers  in  his  service  on  account  of  their  re- 
ligion; in  Sweden  he  should  not  advance  any  of  the 
Poles  to  offices  and  dignities.  He  should  not  allow  any 
innovations  to  be  made  in  the  doctrines  and  ceremonies 


222  The  Reformation  in  Sweden. 

of  the  Church  of  Sweden.  The  hospitals  established 
by  his  father  on  Protestant  foundations  should  not  be 
changed.  The  extreme  condition  was  exacted,  that  no 
worship,  public  or  private,  but  the  established  Protest- 
ant worship,  should  be  allowed.  On  his  return  to  Po- 
land he  should  take  with  him  the  priests  that  were  in 
his  train;  and  while  they  were  in  Sweden  they  should 
not  be  allowed  to  engage  in  any  instruction  or  service 
or  affairs,  outside  the  palace.  The  Pope  should  not  be 
permitted  to  install  any  bishops  or  establish  any  bish- 
oprics in  Sweden:  and  that  his  coronation  should  take 
place  at  Upsala  and  be  performed  by  the  archbishop. 
These  ecclesiastical  conditions  were  followed  by  those 
that  were  political  and  secular.  They  were  drawn  up 
with  equal  care  and  minuteness,  with  a  view  to  main- 
tain the  independence  and  the  liberties  of  Sweden. 

The  Commencement  of  the  Reign  of  Sigismund  in 
Poland.  The  collisions  and  misunderstandings  which 
were  inevitable,  in  a  settlement  which  contained  so 
many  expedients  to  reconcile  opposing  interests,  im- 
mediately occurred.  The  Poles  insisted  upon  the  sur- 
render of  Esthonia  and  a  part  of  Livonia,  which  had 
been  assigned  to  them  by  the  commissioners  Sparre 
and  Brahe,  and  the  knowledge  of  which  had  been  kept 
from  King  John  and  Sigismund.  The  new  king,  after 
most  unpromising  dissensions  with  his  subjects,  at 
length  yielded  the  point  only  under  a  protest,  which 
contemplated  a  future  revision  of  the  treaty.  The 
commissioners  feared  to  return  to  Sweden  and  in- 
cur the  loudly-vented  wrath  of  John  at  the  decep- 
tion which  had  been  passed  upon  him.  King  Sigis- 
mund made  a  humble  excuse  to  his  father  for  having 
consented  to  this  article;  but  assured  him  that  it  was 
only  a  temporary  concession  which  he  would  soon  find 


The  Reformation  in  Sweden.  223 

means  to  revoke.  The  poor  young  king  was  so  dis- 
gusted with  the  turbulent  character  of  his  subjects,  and 
of  what  he  called  their  insupportable  pride,  that  he 
conveyed  to  his  father,  through  the  messenger  that  car- 
ried his  letter,  his  resolution  to  give  his  sister  Anne  in 
marriage  to  the  Archduke  Ernest  of  Austria,  and  to 
yield  to  him  the  kingdom,  and  return  to  Sweden. 
TheLitur  Kin£  John  Persisted  m  pressing  his  Liturgy 
enforced  upon  the  kingdom,  with  a  violence  in  which 
anew.  there  was  blended  the  wounded  pride  of  an 

author,  with  the  arrogance  of  a  despot.  When  the 
clergy  in  the  principality  of  Charles  formally  and 
unanimously  condemned  it,  he  prepared  a  proclama- 
tion, which  he  ordered  to  be  posted  conspicuously 
throughout  the  kingdom,  in  which  he  accused  these 
ecclesiastics  of  rebellion,  heresy,  and  treason.  His 
temper  had  become  ungovernable,  and  he  laid  upon  it 
no  restraint  in  his  private  or  public  proceedings.  He 
called  the  clergy  who  had  condemned  his  Liturgy,  dis- 
ciples of  the  devil,  and  burned  all  the  books  which  Mr. 
Abraham  had  published  against  the  Liturgy.  The 
clergy  appealed  to  Duke  Charles,  and  he  assured  them 
of  his  approbation  and  of  his  purpose  to  support  them 
to  the  full  extent  of  his  power.  The  clergy  replied 
with  spirit  to  these  denunciations  of  the  king;  and  re- 
ferred to  the  Scriptures,  the  Augsburg  Confession,  and 
Luther's  Catechism,  in  proof  of  their  orthodoxy.  They 
also  wrote  a  dignified  exposition  of  their  views,  and  an 
appeal  to  all  the  clergy  and  nobility  to  aid  them  in 
sustaining  the  faith  and  order  of  the  Church,  as  they 
were  settled  by  the  great  Gustavus.  This  proceeding 
so  alarmed  and  exasperated  the  king  that  he  deter- 
mined to  bring  back  Sigismund  from  Poland  to  as- 
sist him  in  resisting  the  rising  spirit  of  dissatisfaction 


224  The  Reformation  in  Sweden. 

throughout  the  kingdom.  But  if  that  purpose  had 
been  accomplished,  it  would  have  served  rather  to  in- 
crease than  to  quell  the  opposition  which  his  arbitrary- 
measures  now  encountered.  In  his  anger  and  alarm 
he  required  all  the  clergy  of  Sweden — and  he  was  gen- 
erally obeyed,  except  in  the  domains  of  Charles — to 
bind  themselves  to  him  by  an  oath  that  they  would  be 
faithful  to  him  and  not  in  any  way  assist  Charles,  if  he 
should  revolt.  This  writing  was  signed  by  all  the 
clergy  of  Stockholm  except  one,  and  he  was  deprived, 
and  treated  with  great  indignity  and  violence. 
Conference  The  disposition  of  the  king  to  rule  alone, 
between  uncontrolled  and  even  uninfluenced  by  his 
and  S Sigh-  counselors  and  estates,  constantly  increased. 
mund.  '  When  his  council  remonstrated  with  him  on 
the  extravagance  and  disorder  of  his  household,  at  a 
time  when  the  resources  of  the  kingdom  were  strained 
to  the  utmost  by  the  war  with  Russia,  which  had  con- 
tinued during  all  his  reign,  the  king  was  much  offended, 
and  would  take  no  steps  at  reformation  which  should 
seem  to  be  in  obedience  to  their  suggestions.  Dis- 
gusted with  his  position,  and  alarmed  at  the  attitude 
of  the  subjects  of  Charles,  and  longing  for  a  sight  of 
his  son  Sigismund,  the  king  determined  to  meet  and 
confer  with  him  at  Reval.  The  impatience  of  John 
was  such  that  he  would  not  wait  for  his  military  es- 
cort, and  against  the  remonstrances  of  his  counselors, 
who  earnestly  endeavored  to  dissuade  him  from  the 
journey,  he  embarked  early  in  July  with  his  queen 
and  a  newborn  son,  and  reached  Reval  two  weeks 
before  Sigismund  arrived.  It  was  rumored  and  be- 
lieved by  the  council  that  John  intended  to  bring  back 
Sigismund  to  Sweden,  and  not  allow  him  again  to 
return  to  Poland.     The  kings  spent  a  month  together 


The  Reformation  in  Sweden.  225 

at  Reval.  There  bitter  dissensions  and  frequent  bloody 
conflicts  broke  out  between  the  Swedes  and  Poles  who 
were  in  the  trains  of  the  two  kings.  An  irruption  of 
Tartars  into  Poland  furnished  occasion  to  the  coun- 
selors of  Sigismund  for  an  imperative  demand  that  he 
should  immediately  return  to  his  kingdom  and  his 
duties.  On  the  other  hand  the  Swedish  council  sought 
to  lay  before  John  the  remonstrances  determined  upon 
at  Upsala  against  bringing  Sigismund  into  Sweden. 
John  refused  to  see  the  lords  who  came  to  lay  this 
protest  before  him.  Their  remonstrance  painted  in 
vivid  colors  the  dreadful  condition  of  the  country, 
the  result  of  an  almost  continuous  war  of  twenty- 
eight  years  with  Russia,  and  of  the  reckless  extrava- 
gance of  the  king  and  court.  Famine  prevailed  in 
various  sections  of  the  country.  Peace  was  the  first 
necessity  of  the  kingdom;  and  Russia  was  now  dis- 
posed to  enter  into  negotiations.  If  Sigismund  should 
abandon  Poland  and  return  to  Sweden,  as  did  Henry  of 
Valoisto  France,  then  would  irritated  Poland  unite  with 
Russia  against  Sweden,  and  she  would  be  ruined  and 
conquered  and  divided.  This  paper  was  signed  by 
sixty-one  names  of  the  most  eminent  men  in  the 
kingdom.  When  the  soldiers  who  were  at  Stockholm 
heard  how  John  had  refused  to  listen  to  the  remon- 
strances of  the  council,  they  assembled  in  high  excite- 
ment before  the  royal  palace,  and  threw  down  their 
colors,  and  declared  with  loud  oaths  that  they  would 
no  longer  serve  his  majesty,  if  he  should  bring  back 
King  Sigismund  into  Sweden.  The  crisis  was  too 
alarming  to  allow  the  king  to  carry  out  his  design. 
But  it  was  a  bitter  disappointment,  which  left  rankling 
hatred  in  his  heart  against  the  principal  counselors 
who  had  signed  the  memorial,  and  especially  against 


226  The  Reformation  in  Sweden. 

those  lords  who  had  attempted  to  present  it  to  him 
at  Reval.  The  two  kings  reluctantly  parted  and  never 
saw  each  other  again.  John  now  began  to  find  that 
the  power  which  he  had  given  to  the  nobles  to  be 
used  for  his  defense  against  Charles,  could  as  readily 
be  directed  against  himself. 
T„     „  ,       The  now  critical  relation  of  John  with  his 

Km°  Johns  .  .      .  ....  , 

Reconciila-   counselors  and  the  nobility  made  it  neces- 
tion     with    sary  for  hjm  to  be  reconciled  to  Charles.    It 

Char/es.  .  . 

became  all  the  more  imperative  from  the  fact 
that  the  nobles  and  all  Sweden  observed  that  while  all 
was  confusion  and  waste  in  the  court  and  administra- 
tion of  the  king,  the  principality  of  Charles  was  com- 
paratively prosperous,  and  all  its  affairs  conducted 
with  system  and  economy.  Hence  Charles  was  rein- 
stated in  all  the  privileges  and  rights  connected  with 
his  principality,  which  at  the  suggestion  of  the  king 
had  been  curtailed  by  the  nobility  at  the  Diet  of 
Wadstena.  He  resided  for  the  most  at  Stockholm; 
and  in  fact  became  the  real  administrator  of  the 
kingdom.  John  acknowledged  that  more  was  now 
accomplished  in  three  days  than  formerly  in  as  many 
months.  Chafing  under  a  sense  of  his  comparative  in- 
significance, and  baffled  in  his  attempts  at  an  un- 
checked arbitrary  rule,  and  exasperated  with  the  lords 
who  had  so  peremptorily  and  effectively  protested 
against  the  return  of  Sigismund  to  Sweden,  King 
John  did  little  else  than  study  how  he  might  have 
his  revenge  on  those  lords  and  counselors  who  had 
defeated  his  cherished  plan,  and  had  treated  him  with 
scant  respect.  Selecting  the  names  of  six  of  the  most 
obnoxious  of  the  lords,  for  what  he  termed  "  the  re- 
volt in  Reval,"  he  issued  his  commands  that  their  fiefs 
should  be  sequestered,  that  none  of  them  should  be 


The  Reformation  in  Sweden.  227 

admitted  to  any  of  the  royal  castles,  and  that  they 
should  repair  to  Stockholm  to  answer  for  their  trea- 
son. The  Estates  were  convoked,  and  the  six  lords 
arraigned.  On  making  certain  acknowledgments  they 
were  permitted  to  retain  their  estates;  but  they  signed 
a  secret  document  in  which  they  protested  that  they 
had  committed  no  crime,  but  had  only  exercised  the 
privileges  and  the  duties  of  faithful  counselors  of  the 
king  and  kingdom.  But  the  vindictive  king  still  con- 
tinued to  urge  against  them  his  charge  of  disloyalty 
and  treason.  They  were  imprisoned  for  two  years; 
and  during  all  that  period  were  subjected  to  repeated 
examinations.  In  urging  on  this  charge,  to  which  he 
had  added  still  another,  to  the  effect  that  they  were 
engaged  in  a  conspiracy  with  many  others  to  exclude 
Sigismund  from  the  throne  of  Sweden,  King  John 
made  the  most  exorbitant  claims  to  absolute  author- 
ity. It  was  in  vain  that  the  wives  of  these  accused 
lords,  and  Sigismund  himself,  pleaded  for  them  with 
the  king.  The  appeal  of  Sigismund  was  both  politic 
and  just.  "Even  if  they  were  not  altogether  guilt- 
less," he  wrote,  "yet  should  his  -majesty  let  grace 
stand  for  law,  and  ponder  how  grievously  it  would 
fall  out  for  his  son  to  come  into  a  government  where 
widows  and  orphans,  in  part  not  distantly  related  to 
the  royal  house,  would  cry  vengeance  upon  him  as 
the  author  of  their  woes."  All  appeals  were  in  vain. 
The  implacable  king  would  have  his  revenge.  The 
lords,  and  many  of  their  alleged  accomplices,  were 
imprisoned  and  subjected  to  heavy  penalties. 
Death  of  The  king  died  in  the  castle  of  Stockholm  on 
King  John.  tiie  i;7th  of  November,  1592,  in  the  fifty-fifth 
year  of  his  age.  During  the  last  year  of  his  life  he  suf- 
fered the  penalty  that  falls  on  tyrants,  of  a  dread  and 


228  The  Reformation  in  Sweden. 

suspicion  of  all  around  him.  There  is  nothing-  in  his 
character  to  admire.  He  was  learned,  indeed,  and  pos- 
sessed of  more  talent  than  ordinarily  belongs  to  kings; 
but  he  was  mean,  suspicious,  jealous,  cruel,  negligent, 
indolent,  and  profuse.  Honest  History  must  write 
over  his  grave  the  simple  epitaph:  "A  mean  man  and  a 
bad  king!' 


CHAPTER    XL 

CHARLES    AND    SIGISMUND. 

WE  no  sooner  enter  upon  the  story  of  what  is 
called  the  reign  of  King  Sigismund  in  Swe- 
den, than  we  are  at  once  ushered  into  a  scene  of 
conflict  which  arose  from  the  struggle  of  the  two 
systems  of  Romanism  and  Protestantism  for  suprem- 
acy. As  mutual  toleration  was  at  that  time  impos- 
sible, perpetual  collision  was  inevitable  between  a 
king  whose  conscience  constrained  him  to  force  Ro- 
manism upon  his  subjects,  and  a  Protestant  people 
equally  resolute  and  conscientious  in  their  resistance 
to  such  an  attempt.  If  John  was  able  to  weaken  the 
foundation  of  the  institutions  of  Sweden  based  on 
the  Reformation,  much  more  aggressive  and  destruc- 
tive measures  might  be  anticipated  from  a  king  so 
devoted  to  the  Papacy  and  the  Jesuits,  that  even 
John,  in  his  own  temporary  surrender  to  Rome,  felt 
that  his  son  went  too  far,  and  advised  him  to  be 
aware  of  those  Fathers  who  were  accustomed  to  keep 
one  foot  in  the  pulpit  and  the  other  in  the  council 
room. 
_   .  .       r    Charles  had  in  fact  conducted  the  crovern- 

Positwn  of  ° 

Charles  in  ment  of  Sweden  for  the  last  two  years  of 
Sweden.  King  John's  reign.  As  the  king  had  made 
no  definite  arrangements  for  the  administration  of  the 


230  The  Reformation  in  Sweden. 

kingdom  after  his  death,  it  was  natural  that  it  should 
remain  with  Charles.  The  duke  advised  King  Sigis- 
mund  of  his  father's  death,  and  consulted  him  upon 
the  measures  to  be  taken  for  carrying  on  the  war  with 
Russia.  The  six  counselors  deprived  and  imprisoned 
by  John,  were  pardoned  and  recalled — a  measure  that  ■ 
was  agreeable  to  the  king.  He  also  set  at  liberty  all 
persons  who  were  confined  on  account  of  the  Liturgy, 
or  for  political  causes.  A  letter  soon  came  from  the 
king  confirming  Charles  in  the  government,  until  he 
should  be  able  to  visit  Sweden. 

So  far,  on  the  surface,  all  was  well.  But  the  politic 
and  able  duke  was  aware  that  already  intrigues  were 
going  on  in  Finland  and  elsewhere  in  behalf  of  the 
Papacy.  He  therefore  entered  into  a  compact  with 
the  council  that  they  should  obey  him  in  everything 
which  the  interests  of  religion  and  the  independence 
of  the  kingdom  demanded — but  without  prejudice  to 
their  fealty  to  the  king.  Both  Charles  and  his  council 
could  consistently  make  this  reservation  of  fealty  to 
the  king  because  they  did  not  hold  that  this  fealty 
required  them  to  acquiesce  in  the  overthrow  of  the 
legally  established  Protestantism  and  independence 
of  the  country.  King  Sigismund  of  course  saw  what 
was  the  animus  and  meaning  of  this  language,  and 
was  accustomed  to  call  it  Charles's  bird-net.  The 
duke  assured  the  council  that  he  would  engage  in  no 
important  affairs  without  their  advice  and  consent. 
That  this  pledge  of  obedience,  saving  the  preroga- 
tives of  the  king,  might  sometimes  carry  the  council 
further  than  they  desired  to  go,  soon  appeared.  The 
clergy  of  Stockholm  pressed  for  the  calling  of  a  synod, 
promised  by  King  John  in  1590,  for  the  adjustment  of 
religious  disputes.     The  council  thought  that  the  mat- 


The  Reformation  in  Sweden.  231 

ter  should  be  adjusted  by  a  joint  commission  of  their 
own  body  and  of  the  clergy.  But  Charles  well  knew 
that  in  so  small  a  body  reactionary  influences  would 
be  more  likely  to  prevail  than  in  a  large  assembly. 
He  therefore  demanded  that  there  should  be  a  general 
Diet  of  the  kingdom;  and  he  carried  his  point.  King 
Gustavus  had  secured  Protestantism  and  freedom  for 
Sweden,  and  these  must  at  all  hazards  and  sacrifices 
be  preserved.  He  declared — and  the  statement  must 
have  been  most  offensive  to  Sigismund — that  he  only 
could  be  regarded  as  the  true  hereditary  king  of 
Sweden  who  preserved  them  unimpaired.  They  had 
now  a  king  whose  conscience  was  directed  by  the 
Pope;  they  should  therefore  renew  their  loyalty  to 
and  declare  in  unmistakable  words  and  acts  their  pur- 
pose to  defend  and  secure,  the  hard-won,  but  inestim- 
able blessings,  obtained  and  transmitted  to  them  by 
the  great  Gustavus.  It  was  under  the  influence  of 
this  bold  and  animating  manifesto  that  the  Diet  met 
in  Upsala,  on  the  25th  of  February,  1593. 
The  Diet  of  Deputies  from  every  part  of  Sweden  except 
Upsala.  Finland  come  to  the  Diet.  Finland  was 
under  the  government  of  a  partisan  of  Sigismund.  It  was 
for  Sweden  an  unusually  large  assembly.  There  were 
present  the  duke  with  his  council,  four  bishops,  above 
three  hundred  clergy,  many  of  the  nobles  and  repre- 
sentatives of  the  burgesses  and  peasants.  A  very 
enthusiastic  and  resolute  spirit  prevailed.  Nicholaus 
Bothniensis,  Professor  of  Theology  at  Upsala,  although 
a  young  man,  was  elected  speaker.  This  was  a  mani- 
festation of  homage  to  the  steadfastness  with  which 
the  Upsala  professors  had  resisted  the  Liturgy;  and  it 
was  a  plain  sign  of  the  spirit  that  animated  the  Diet. 
They  decreed  that  the  Scriptures  were  the  sole  rule  of 


232  The  Reformation  in  Sweden. 

faith;  and  they  considered  and  sanctioned  all  the  arti- 
cles of  the  unmutilated  Augsburg  Confession.  There- 
upon Peter  Jonson,  recently  consecrated  Bishop  of 
Strengness,  rose  and  inquired  whether  all  present 
assented  to  and  would  defend  these  articles  of  faith, 
and  abide  by  them  even  if  called  upon  to  suffer  for  it. 
All  replied  that  they  pledged  all  they  had  in  this 
world,  goods  and  life,  in  their  defense.  Then  the 
speaker  exclaimed,  "  Then  is  Sweden  become  one  man, 
and  all  of  us  have  one  God."  In  view  of  the  persecu- 
tions which  they  had  suffered  under  John,  and  those 
much  more  severe  which  Sigismund,  if  he  should  obtain 
ascendency,  would  inflict,  the  spectacle  of  this  repre- 
sentation of  a  nation,  and  not  of  an  ecclesiastical  synod 
alone,  entering  into  such  a  religious  compact,  is  a  truly 
noble  one.  The  event  proved  that,  on  the  part  of  the 
great  majority  of  its  members,  it  was  a  compact  sin- 
cerely entered  into,  and  faithfully  maintained. 

The  changes  in  church  ceremonies  and  doctrines 
which  had  been  introduced  under  the  former  reign 
were  abolished.  Luther's  Catechism  was  adopted  as 
the  groundwork  of  religious  instruction  and  Laurence 
Peterson's  manual  the  formulary  of  divine  service. 
The  bishops  who  had  supported  the  Liturgy  were 
now  the  first  and  most  earnest  to  renounce  it.  They 
requested  of  the  Council  of  State  the  return  of  their 
written  engagements  to  support  the  Liturgy.  Some  of 
the  council  promised  it;  but  Charles,  well  knowing 
Episcopal  pliancy,  took  care  that  they  should  be  pre- 
served in  the  archives  of  the  Chancery.  Several  of  the 
lords  addressed  earnest  exhortations  to  the  clergy  to 
stand  firm  hereafter  on  their  privileges,  and  to  be  faith- 
ful to  their  pledges.  They  complained  that  John  had 
forced  into  the  ministry  as  his  pliant  agents  in  support 


The  Reformation  in  Sweden.  233 

of  his  Liturgy,  not  only  unlearned  men,  but  often  mar- 
riage breakers,  thieves,  perjurers,  homicides,  tipplers, 
and  leaders  of  vicious  lives;  and  that  only  those  who 
supported  the  Liturgy  were  advanced  to  high  benefices 
in  the  Church,  and  that  such  men  had  been  thrust  into 
the  Episcopate  by  the  arbitrary  will  of  the  king,  with- 
out a  canonical  election  by  the  clergy.  They  declared 
therefore  that  if  the  Liturgy  were  not  abolished  before 
the  arrival  of  King  Sigismund,  the  kingdom  would  be 
in  the  condition  of  one  who  should  attempt  to  carry  a 
light  in  a  violent  storm.  All  these  proceedings  leave 
an  impression  that  the  nobility  and  commons  had  been 
more  faithful,  and  were  now  more  in  earnest  in  main- 
taining the  Protestant  faith  than  the  clergy. 
„   .  .        -    Charles  took  no  part  in  the  deliberations  of 

Position   of  *  .      .  -  . 

Charles  in  the  diet.  But,  of  course,  his  influence  in  it 
the  Diet.  must  have  been  great.  There  seems  to  have 
been  no  less  moderation  than  firmness  in  their  proceed- 
ings. No  one  was  proscribed  for  having  acquiesced 
in  the  Liturgy.  Only  one  minister,  John  Paulson  of 
Stockholm,  was  deprived.  He  had  been  so  factious 
and  violent  that  King  John  himself  had  suspended 
him.  Charles  subscribed  the  decrees  of  the  Diet,  and 
did  not  disguise  his  disgust  at  the  council  for  not 
having  declared  themselves  long  before.  He  was  in- 
deed inclined  to,  although  there  is  no  proof  that  he 
had  as  yet  adopted,  the  tenets  of  the  Reformed  Church. 
His  first  wife  was  a  sister  of  the  Elector  Palatine;  and 
Charles  was  devoted  to  her  and  very  friendly  with  all 
her  family.  And  now  the  bishops  who  had  subscribed 
to  and  enforced  the  Liturgy,  in  their  new-born  zeal 
for  pure  Lutheranism,  and  probably  with  a  view  to  re- 
buke the  rumored  sacramentarian  views  of  Charles,  were 
very  earnest  to  secure  decrees  against  Zwinglians  and 


234  The  Reformation  in  Sweden. 

Calvinists  as  heretics.  The  speaker,  no  doubt  discern- 
ing the  object  of  the  bishops,  refused  to  put  the  mo- 
tion. But  they  persisted  and  carried  it,  and  secured  the 
assent  of  Charles  which  was  given  in  phrases  more  ener- 
getic than  choice.  Charles  was  very  angry  at  what  he  re- 
garded as  a  personal  rebuke.  In  a  confidential  letter  to 
the  archbishop  and  professors  of  Upsala,  he  afterwards 
declared:  "We  are  now  defamed  by  the  clergy  as  if 
we  countenanced  the  doctrine  of  Calvin  and  Zwingle. 
But  we  will  profess  ourselves  bound  to  no  man's  per- 
son, Christ  excepted,  neither  Luther,  Calvin,  or  Zwin- 
gle, but  to  God's  Word  alone."  His  fault,  so  it  would 
be  regarded  by  the  more  intolerant  clergy,  was,  not 
that  he  manifested  any  opposition  to,  or  any  want  of 
reverence  for,  Luther,  but  that  he  did  not  sufficiently 
hate  Calvin  and  Zwingle. 

The  proceedings  of  the  Diet  of  Upsala  were 

Importance  r  °  ,,.,,■  r 

of  the  Diet  not  only  most  memorable  in  the  history  of 
of  Upsala.  sweden>  but  of  immense  moment  to  the  cause 
of  Protestantism  in  Europe.  The  Church  of  Sweden  cel- 
ebrates the  anniversary  of  this  diet  every  century  with 
the  same  enthusiasm  with  which  Germany  celebrates 
the  birthday  of  Luther.  It  secured,  after  further  strug- 
gles, the  Reformation  in  Sweden,  and,  through  Gusta- 
vus  Adolphus,  rescued  it  from  extinction  in  Germany 
and  other  countries.  For  many  years  a  sermon  was 
preached  in  all  the  churches  in  commemoration  of  the 
Sunday  after  the  19th  of  February,  1592,  on  which  day 
Sigismund  was  compelled  to  acknowledge  the  Acts  of 
the  Diet  of  Upsala.  All  the  sermons  were  preached 
from  the  same  text — a  text  which  reminded  the  peo- 
ple of  the  fact  that  they  had  been,  and  could  continue 
to  be,  prosperous  and  blessed  only  as  they  were  faith- 
ful to  God  and  to  his  truth.    The  text  of  these  sermons 


The  Reformation  in  Sweden.  235 

was  the  Second  of  Chronicles  xv.  I,  2:  "  And  the  Spirit 
of  God  came  upon  Azariah  the  son  of  Oded:  And  he 
went  out  to  meet  Asa,  and  said  unto  him,  Hear  ye  me, 
Asa,  and  all  Judah  and  Benjamin;  The  Lord  is  with 
you,  while  ye  be  with  him;  and  if  ye  seek  him,  he  will 
be  found  of  you;  but  if  ye  forsake  him,  he  will  for- 
sake you." 

Proceedings  The  proceedings  of  the  Polish  Diet  on  the 
in  Poland.  question  of  King  Sigismund's  visit  and  rela- 
tion to  Sweden,  was  marked  by  even  more  than  the 
usual  violence  of  Polish  assemblies.  At  length  it  was 
agreed  that  Sigismund  should  be  provided  with  means 
to  visit  his  kingdom  of  Sweden,  on  the  condition  that 
he  should  make  a  satisfactory  arrangement  of  the  dis- 
pute between  the  two  kingdoms  in  reference  to  Estho- 
nia.  Olaf  Swerkerson,  an  intermediary  between  Charles 
and  Sigismund,  assured  the  former  that  the  king  would 
uphold  the  laws,  liberties,  and  rights  of  his  native  land; 
and  that  he  would  show  neither  affection  nor  hatred  to 
any  man  on  account  of  his  religion;  but  that  he  could 
not  and  would  not  sanction  the  decrees  of  Upsala  passed 
during  his  absence. 

But  these  general  assurances  were  not  satisfactory 
to  the  Swedes.  They  desired  from  Sigismund  before 
he  should  leave  Poland  more  explicit  and  favorable 
declarations,  confirmed  by  guarantee,  upon  which  they 
could  rely.  Accordingly,  Thure  Bielke,  a  man  per- 
sonally agreeable  to  Sigismund,  was  sent  to  Poland 
with  a  warrant  in  which  the  demands  and  expectations 
of  Sweden  were  detailed,  together  with  a  copy  of  the 
Acts  of  the  Diet  of  Upsala.  These  documents  were 
ordered  to  be  read  in  all  the  churches  of  the  kingdom, 
in  order  to  keep  the  heart  of  the  people  up  to  their 
duty  in  the  crisis  that  was  impending.     Two  eminent 


236  The  Reformation  in  Sweden. 

nobles,  Nicholas  Bielke  and  Eric  Sparre,  were  sent  with 
a  fleet  to  Dantzic  to  meet  the  king  and  escort  him  into 
Sweden. 

But  sinister  rumors  reached  Sweden  before  the  ar- 
rival of  the  king.    It  was  reported  that  a  Papal  Legate 
had  arrived  at  Warsaw,  with  a  command  from  the  Pope 
that  he  should  restore  the  Church  in  his  hereditary  do- 
minions, and  that  he  had  brought  a  subsidy  in  money 
for  the  undertaking;  that  the  imperial  envoy  used  the 
same  language;  and  that  the  Legate  was  to  follow  Sig- 
ismund  to  Sweden  and  crown  him  there,  in  violation 
of  the  compact  between  the  two  kingdoms;  that  Sigis- 
mund,  in  the  course  of  his  journey,  had  laid  an  inter- 
dict on  the  Evangelical  Churches  of  Thorn  and  Elbing; 
and  that  a  fear  of  a  similar  proceeding  at  Dantzic  had 
led  to  popular  tumults  in  that  city.    These  rumors  cre- 
ated much  apprehension  in  the  kingdom.     Added  to 
these  causes  of  disquiet  was  the  attitude  of  the  resolute 
and  turbulent  governor  of  the  important  province  of 
Finland,  Clas  Fleming.     The  duke  wrote  to  him  that 
he  should  admit  no  man  into  the  castle  of  Abo  without 
an  order  from  him  and  the  Council  of  State.     Fleming 
replied  that  he  had  but  one  master  in  his  government, 
and  that  was  King  Sigismund.     In  a  letter  to  Poland 
he   subscribed  his   name  with  additions,  in  which  he 
boldly  announced  his  defiance  of  Charles  and  his  de- 
termined  loyalty  to   the   king:    "  Clas   Fleming,    free 
baron  of  Wilk,    Marshal,  High  Admiral,  and  General, 
who  has  now  too  many  rulers,  though  he  guides  him- 
self by  only  one,  who  is  called  King  Sigismund.    Come, 
my  mates,  to  command  me  too,  and  see  if  I  do  not 
knock  them  on  the  head." 


The  Reformation  in  Sweden.  237 

Notwithstanding  the  unsatisfactory  nature  of 
Sigismund  the  preliminary  proceedings  between  Charles 
;«  &0A&IK.  and  the  king>  the  iatter  embarked  on  the 
fleet  sent  from  Finland  to  Dantzic  and  landed  in  Stock- 
holm on  the  30th  of  September,  1593.  Charles  took 
his  stand  on  the  castle  bridge  to  receive  the  king. 
The  newly-elected  archbishop,  Abraham  Angerman, 
who  had  been  persecuted  by  John  because  of  his  de- 
termined opposition  to  the  Liturgy,  was  appointed  to 
welcome  the  king.  This  arrangement,  significant  of 
Charles's  resolute  purpose  to  keep  Protestantism  in  the 
foreground,  was  very  offensive  to  Sigismund  and  to  the 
Legate,  Malaspina.  The  king  wrote  complaining  of  it 
to  Charles:  "  It  is  singular  that  Master  Abraham,  who 
had  fallen  into  disgrace  with  our  late  father,  should 
now  be  the  person  to  receive  us  in  the  name  of  all  the 
clergy."  After  an  outburst  of  indignation  against  Clas 
Fleming,  addressed  to  the  king,  and  with  a  stern  and 
independent  bearing  towards  him,  which  clearly  inti- 
mated his  distrust,  and  gave  warning  that  he  was  not 
to  be  intimidated  or  won,  Charles  retired  to  his  princi- 
pality and  committed  to  the  council  the  business  of 
negotiation  with  the  king. 

Immediately  collisions  and  disagreements  occurred. 
Sigismund  would  not  confirm  the  Acts  of  the  Synod  of 
Upsala,  nor  would  he  accept  the  new  archbishop.  The 
Jesuits  and  the  clergy  of  Stockholm  began  to  preach 
against  each  other.  The  king  demanded  the  transfer 
of  a  church  in  a  former  monastery  of  Franciscans  to 
the  Catholics,  and  enforced  a  burial  there  with  the  Catho- 
lic ritual.  This  occasioned  a  conflict,  and  the  shedding 
of  blood  in  the  church  itself.  The  king  sullenly  kept 
aloof  from  the  Swedish  counselors,  and  surrounded 
himself  with  Roman  partisans,  and  refused  to  receive 


238  The  Reformation  in  Sweden. 

a  deputation  of  the  Protestant  clergy.  In  reply  to  the 
council,  who  pressed  upon  him  certain  pledges  previous 
to  his  coronation,  he  haughtily  expressed  his  surprise 
at  their  presumption,  and  reminded  them  of  the  differ- 
ence between  an  hereditary  and  an  elective  monarchy. 
As  he  succeeded  to  a  kingdom  the  prevailing  religion 
of  which  was  different  from  his  own,  he  would  leave 
those  who  professed  it  unmolested;  but  he  would  insist 
that  those  subjects  which  were  of  his  faith  should  have 
equal  privileges  with  the  majority. 

Second  Diet  It  was  m  this  spirit  of  mutual  exasperation 
of  Upsala.  -j-hat  both  parties  repaired  to  Upsala,  where 
the  States  were  assembled  to  celebrate  at  once  the  en- 
tombment of  John  and  the  coronation  of  Sigismund. 
The  obsequies  of  John  were  celebrated  with  great  pomp; 
but  the  Papal  Legate  was  turned  out  of  the  procession, 
and  the  Jesuits  forbidden  to  enter  the  church  on  the 
penalty  of  death.  Charles  took  no  part  in  the  solem- 
nity; but  he  was  there  with  three  thousand  men,  foot 
and  horse,  whom  he  quartered  on  his  hereditary  pos- 
sessions in  the  neighborhood.  He  said  to  the  Estates 
— "  I  part  not  from  you;  if  Sigismund  will  be  your  king 
he  must  fulfill  your  requests."  He  told  the  king  that 
no  coronation  should  be  permitted  until  the  demands 
and  pledges  required  were  given.  When  he  proceeded 
to  the  castle  to  make  this  announcement  in  person  to 
the  king;  he  was  accompanied  by  the  council  and  no- 
bility, and  vast  crowds  of  the  applauding  people.  The 
order  of  the  peasants  in  the  diet  offered  Charles  the 
crown;  but  he  sternly  commanded  them  to  be  silent. 
It  was  a  great  crisis,  and  it  was  evident  that  the  resg- 
lute  and  subtle  Charles  was  equal  to  it. 

Affairs   seemed   to  be  in  what,  in  modern   phrase, 
would   be   called  a  dead-lock.     The  court  labored  to 


The  Reformation  in  Sweden.  239 

bribe  and  disunite  the  Estates.  Rumors  were  current, 
and  were  afterwards  confirmed,  that  an  attempt  was  to 
be  made  upon  the  life  of  Charles;  but  no  charge  was 
made  then  or  since  that  Sigisrn.  ^d  was  privy  to  the 
design.  Charles  redoubled  his  vigilance  and  increased 
his  military  force.  In  this  period  of  painful  suspense  a 
most  impressive  scene  took  place  in  the  diet.  The 
whole  assembly  fell  upon  their  knees  and  united  in 
prayer;  and  in  that  attitude  vowed  and  pledged  them- 
selves to  each  other,  at  every  hazard  and  every  cost,  to 
uphold  the  decrees  of  the  former  Diet  of  Upsala.  Un- 
der the  impulse  of  that  enthusiastic  proceeding  they 
were  ready  to  enact,  as  they  did,  very  decided  meas- 
ures. They  decreed  that  no  Catholic  should  henceforth 
be  permitted  to  hold  a  civil  office  in  Sweden.  Who- 
ever should  embrace  the  Catholic  faith,  or  permit  his 
children  to  be  educated  therein,  should  forfeit  the  rights 
of  citizenship;  Catholics  might  reside  in  the  kingdom 
if  they  conducted  themselves  peaceably;  but  no  Catho- 
lic service  should  be  performed  except  in  the  king's 
chapel.  This  was  all  that  the  king  could  obtain.  And 
when  the  duke,  weaned  with  the  delays  and  irritated 
at  the  intrigues  of  the  king,  peremptorily  announced 
to  him  that  unless  he  should  give  a  decisive  answer  in 
twenty-four  hours,  he  would  dissolve  the  diet  and  send 
its  members  home,  he  was  obliged  to  yield.  We  may 
be  sure  that  it  was  a  bitter  necessity;  and  that  there 
could  have  been  no  sincerity  in  his  extorted  assent. 
The  Te  Deum  was  sung  by  the  States  as  upon  occasions 
of  great  military  victories.  The  new  archbishop  was 
confirmed  by  the  king.  But  to  another  bishop — the 
bishop  of  Westeras — was  assigned  the  service  of  coron- 
ation. The  Jesuits  were  not  permitted  to  be  present. 
When  the  kin£  took  the  oath  he  allowed  his  hand  to 


240  The  Reformation  in  Sweden. 

drop;  but  Charles  reminded  him  that  he  must  hold 
it  upright  until  the  conclusion  of  the  pledge;  and  the 
king  obeyed.  One  would  have  supposed  that  these 
events — this  demonstration  of  the  substantial  unity  of 
the  people  in  the  Protestant  faith,  and  of  their  firm 
purpose  to  maintain  it,  and  this  taste  of  the  quality  of 
his  uncle  Charles — would  have  sufficed  to  convince  the 
young  king  that  his  attempt  to  reintroduce  Romanism 
into  Sweden  could  not  possibly  succeed. 
The  Kins  ^Q  storv  °f  the  king's  evasion  and  viola- 
faithiess  to  lation  of  the  solemn  pledges  which  he  made 
his  Pledges.  at  kjs  coronation  js  found  in  manuscript, 
among  the  papers  of  Adolphus  Gustavus.  No  one 
could  be  better  informed  on  the  subject  than  he;  and 
he  has  told  the  story,  considering  the  temptations  to 
violent  and  indignant  denunciations  which  he  must 
have  experienced,  with  commendable  moderation. 

"  Sigismund  was  slow  in  confirming  all  lay  and 
clerical  privileges;  and  as  he  promised  with  hesitancy, 
so  he  kept  to  it  no  longer  than  between  Upsala  and 
Stockholm.  He  was  hardly  arrived  at  the  capital, 
when  he  made  the  Count  Eric  Brahe  (a  Catholic)  to 
be  governor  there,  which  was  one  of  the  highest  offices 
in  the  kingdom.  Malaspina,  the  evil  thorn  that  stuck 
in  the  king's  foot,  made  him  halt  sorely  in  his  prom- 
ises. Popish  schools  and  Popish  churches  were  erected; 
around  Stockholm  divine  service  was  interrupted  by 
disturbances;  men  were  obliged  to  go  armed  to  the 
church,  complaint  thereof  was  made  to  the  king,  but 
little  good  was  thereby  effected.  Moreover  the  king's 
counselors  found  it  good  to  fish  in  troubled  waters. 
Sweden  must  be  stirred  up  to  civil  discords  that  one 
heretic  might  be  extirpated  by  another.  The  king 
hastened  to  Poland.     Here  all  was  to  remain  in  dis- 


The  Reformation  in  Sweden.  241 

order  and  confusion,  no  one  bound  to  obey  another, 
that  the  more  speedily  among  so  many  magnates  (for 
every  province   had   its  lieutenants),  mischiefs  might 
spring  up.     But  as  the  majesty  of  the  realm  of  Sweden 
was  by  God's  blessing  succored  and  defended  to  this 
day,  so  that  it  was  never  transferred  to  another  mon- 
archy, but    by    Swedish  valor    was   preserved  to   this 
country  and  nation,  so  too  were  now  found  men  who 
would  not  allow  this  design  of  the  king  to  be  effected. 
The  council  which  was  in  Stockholm  protested  against 
him,  that  it  was  not  competent  for  him  to  remove  the 
kingly  government  out  of  the  land;  he  should  appoint 
a  government  within  the  realm  who  should  manage 
its  affairs.     They  also  gave  Charles,  who  lay  sick  at 
Nycoping,  to  understand  this.     The  king  indeed  made 
out,  though  without  good  will,  a  warrant  wherein  with 
few  words  my  father  was  empowered  to  manage  the 
administration,  with  the  council  of  state;  but  the  lieu- 
tenants  of  the   provinces   were   enjoined   to   pay   this 
government  no  regard.     Thus  they  did  whatever  they 
wished.     To  the  people,  who  (in  Sweden  especially) 
were  accustomed  to  law  and  justice,  it  appeared  strange 
that  they  were  treated  so  ill  by  the  lieutenants;  and  as 
the  people  are  beside  prone  to  complain,  so  when  they 
found   themselves   oppressed    they  ran   in    crowds   to 
Stockholm   where    they   were   wont    to   find    redress. 
The  government  would  gladly  have  had  from  Sigis- 
mund   a  better  warrant  and  fuller  instructions,  after 
which   they  might  have   ruled  the  people  and  realm 
for  the  king's  behoof,  which  also  while  the  king  was 
in   Stockholm  was   sufficiently  promised;   yet    it   was 
deferred   from  day  to  day,  until  the   king  was   ready 
to   sail,  and  no  other   could  be  obtained,   whence  all 
the  disorder  afterwards  flowed." 


242  The  Reformation  in  Sweden. 

It  was  the  policy  of  Sigismund  to  leave  Swe- 
dom  afur  den  in  such  an  unsettled  state  that  his  in- 
Sjgismund's   tervention  might  become  necessary  to  restore 

Departure.  .  .       f  .  ... 

order;  and  that  he  might  thus  govern  it 
according  to  his  will,  and  reintroduce  Romanism. 
When  he  found  however  that  the  nobility  could  not 
be  won  to  sanction  such  a  policy,  in  order  to  diminish 
the  power  of  Charles  he  adopted  the  system  that  had 
prevailed  under  the  settlement  of  Calmar,  when  Swe- 
den was  subject  to  the  kings  of  Denmark.  Under  that 
system  the  most  eminent  of  the  nobles  were  appointed 
to  administer  the  different  provinces,  and  they  exercised 
so  much  power  in  their  separate  principalities  that  they 
had  reduced  the  office  of  guardian,  or  regent,  or  admin- 
istrator, as  he  was  variously  called,  to  a  position  of  com- 
parative powerlessness.  Charles,  the  lawful  heir  of 
the  throne,  inheriting  the  principles  and  guided  by  the 
policy  of  Gustavus,  would  by  no  means  be  contented 
with  such  a  position.  But  inasmuch  as  the  council 
approved  this  system — a  system  in  which  their  own 
power  and  consequence  would  be  enhanced — Charles 
was  obliged  to  submit  to  it  for  the  present,  under  em- 
phatic protests,  and  with  distinct  assertion  of  his  su- 
preme power,  under  Sigismund,  whom  he  represented, 
both  as  the  heir  to  the  throne  and  the  regent  of  the 
kingdom.  This  was  in  fact,  and  it  was  so  regarded, 
a  notice  to  these  lieutenants  of  the  provinces  that  he 
should  not  allow  himself  to  be  a  figurehead  of  the 
kingdom;  but  that  he  should  assume  and  exercise 
supreme  authority.  The  cunning  device  of  Sigismund 
to  limit  the  power  of  Charles  by  this  arrangement, 
and  the  unwise  acquiescence  in  it  by  the  council,  was 
the  cause  of  the  innumerable  embarrassments  in  the 
administration  of  the  kingdom  to  which  Charles  was 


The  Reformation  in  Sweden.  243 

subjected  during  all  the  years  previous  to  his  own 
elevation  to  the  throne. 

Meeting  of  After  an  almost  uninterrupted  war  with  Rus- 
the  Estates.  sfa  for  twenty-six  years  peace  was  at  length 
concluded,  1595,  with  that  kingdom.  But  the  turbu- 
lent Clas  Fleming  of  Finland  refused  to  acquiesce  in 
some  of  the  conditions  of  the  treaty  which  referred  to 
that  province,  and  still  prosecuted  the  war.  This  led 
to  a  convocation  of  the  Estates.  The  duke  had  long 
desired  that  they  should  be  convened,  under  the  convic- 
tion that  he  would  be  able  to  induce  the  three  orders  of 
the  knights  and  clergy  and  peasants  to  limit  the  powers 
of  the  lieutenants  of  the  provinces;  but  he  had  failed  to 
secure  the  assent  of  the  Council.  But  now  a  crisis  oc- 
curred— the  virtual  revolt  of  a  province,  whose  con- 
tinued war  with  Russia  threatened  to  nullify  the  treaty 
of  peace — which  made  it  an  obvious  necessity  that  a 
diet  should  assemble. 

But  still  the  Council  refused  to  join  him  in  the  sum- 
mons, unless  they  were  directed  to  do  so  by  the  king. 
The  Council  and  the  Estates  were  positively  forbidden 
to  assemble  by  the  king.  Charles  in  this  crisis  exhib- 
ited the  boldness  and  the  dominating  power  of  his 
character  over  those  with  whom  he  had  to  deal.  He 
presented  the  summons  to  them  and  told  them  per- 
emptorily that  they  must  sign  it.  "  You  must  sign 
the  letters,  and  betake  yourself  thither  too,  or  I  shall 
show  you  another  way."  He  reminded  them  of  Engle- 
bert  the  Dalesman,  a  peasant's  son,  but  who  as  admin- 
istrator constrained  the  council  of  the  realm.  "  I  am  a 
king's  son,"  he  said,  "  and  prince  hereditary  of  this 
monarchy.  After  my  will  ye  shall  da,  and  if  ye  follow 
not  after  with  a  good  heart,  I  will  have  you  brought 
hither  in  bonds."     They  were  compelled  to  subscribe; 


244  The  Reformation  in  Sweden. 

but  they  still  hoped  that  by  the  aid  of  the  high  no- 
bility they  could  prevent  any  great  change  in  their 
own  privileges,  or  in  those  of  the  lieutenants  of  the 
provinces. 

When  the  Estates  assembled  at  Soderkceping  the 
duke  took  the  same  high  tone  with  them  as  he  had  taken 
With  the  Council.  It  was  only  under  a  sense  of  duty  to 
the  country  and  to  himself,  as  the  lawful  heir  of  the 
crown,  that  he  had  accepted  the  office  of  administrator 
of  the  kingdom.  But  as  long  as  he  held  the  office,  he 
insisted  upon  possessing  the  powers  necessary  to  its 
discharge.  If  the  conditions  contained  in  the  king's 
oath  at  his  coronation  were  not  to  be  fulfilled,  and  if 
Clas  Fleming  and  other  rebellious  lords  were  not  to 
be  punished,  he  would  no  longer  occupy  the  position 
of  administrator.  And  the  Estates  were  now  to  decide 
whether  these  two  things  were  to  be  done.  The  stat- 
ute of  Soderkceping,  drawn  up  under  the  direction  of 
Charles,  contained  the  following  articles,  which  con- 
stitute a  declaration  of  absolute  disobedience  and  de- 
fiance of  the  king;  and  were  unanimously  subscribed  by 
the  Diet.  No  doubt  some  of  the  subscriptions  were 
not  ex  animo.  The  purport  of  the  statute  was  as  fol- 
lows: That  no  other  doctrine  than  that  of  the  Augs- 
burg Confession  should  be  allowed  in  Sweden;  that 
even  the  natives  of  a  different  religion  should  be  in- 
capable of  holding  any  office  in  the  kingdom;  that  the 
Popish  priests  should  leave  the  country  in  six  weeks; 
that  the  Romish  worship  should  be  entirely  abolished 
not  only  at  Stockholm,  but  at  Protingsholm  and  Wad- 
stena;  that  the  nuns  of  the  last  place  should  be  ex- 
pelled; that  for  the  future  if  any  Swedes  embraced  any 
other  religion  than  the  Protestant  or  educated  their 
children  in  any  other  profession,  whether  in  Sweden  or 


The  Reformation  in  Sweden.  245 

elsewhere,  they  should  be  incapable  of  hereditary  suc- 
cession, their  estates  should  be  possessed  by  their  near- 
est relations,  and  themselves  banished  from  Sweden  for 
ever.  Those  who  had  professed  the  Roman  religion 
before  the  coronation  of  King  Sigismund  were  allowed 
to  remain  in  Sweden,  though  not  to  make  any  public 
profession  of  that  religion,  or  to  join  in  its  worship,  or 
in  the  celebration  of  any  of  its  services. 

To  these  decisive  articles  concerning  religion,  oth- 
ers relating  to  the  duke's  civil  power,  which  were 
scarcely  less  stringent,  were  added.  The  duke  should 
be  Governor  of  Sweden,  and  in  conjunction  with  the 
council  administer  all  its  affairs  in  the  absence  of  the 
king;  no  suit  or  process  which  belonged  to  Sweden 
should  be  entered  in  Poland  before  King  Sigismund; 
the  right  which  every  one  had  of  appealing  to  the  king 
could  be  exercised  only  when  his  majesty  was  present 
in  Sweden;  his  majesty's  orders  sent  from  Poland  to 
Sweden  could  not  be  published  nor  put  in  execution, 
till  they  were  read  and  approved  by  Charles  and  his 
council.  In  the  case  of  appointments  which  were  in- 
vested in  the  king,  the  nomination  should  lie  with  the 
duke  and  the  council. 

It  is  obvious  that  these  sweeping  provisions  abso- 
lutely excluded  King  Sigismund  from  the  exercise  of 
all  power  in  Sweden  except  when  he  was  personally  in 
the  kingdom.  If  we  imagine  such  powers  vested  in  the 
viceroy  and  council  of  Ireland,  we  shall  see  to  what  a 
nullity  they  would  reduce  the  queen.  They  are  to  be 
vindicated  only  on  the  ground— and  on  that  ground 
they  are  to  be  vindicated  and  applauded — of  national 
self-preservation. 

In  order  to  give  the  utmost  impressiveness  to  the 
assent  of  the  Estates  to  these  Articles,  Chlares  deter- 


246  The  Reformation  in  Sweden. 

mined  to  hold  what  was  technically  called  "a  Bench 
of  Majesty."  This  "Bench  of  Majesty"  was  an  ele- 
vated platform  in  the  open  air,  immediately  before 
which  the  Estates  were  gathered,  and  around  which 
vast  multitudes  of  the  people  thronged.  After  an  ad- 
dress to  the  Estates  Charles  addressed  himself  immedi- 
ately to  the  people,  closing  thus:  "After  what  we, 
honorable  and  good  men,  both  by  means  of  the  an- 
swers which  ye  gave  us,  on  the  points  which  were 
propounded  to  you,  have  come  to  a  clear  resolution, 
here  therefore  cometh  my  question,  Whether  ye  mind 
to  defend  what  here  hath  been  done  and  decreed,  and 
will  stand  to  the  same  all  for  one  and  one  for  all,  see- 
ing it  is  grounded  upon  the  oath  and  assurance  of  the 
king,  and  nought  hath  been  done  save  what  is  profit- 
able to  his  royal  majesty  and  to  our  fatherland."  Yet 
again  he  repeated  the  demand.  With  that  the  com- 
mon people  answered,  Yea,  yea;  yea  gracious  lord,  and 
took  the  oath  with  uplifted  hands,  to  hold  by  his 
princely  grace  all  for  one  and  one  for  all — which  form 
of  speech  the  prince  was  ever  wont  to  use.  Thereupon 
he  turned  to  the  councilors  of  state,  the  bishops  and 
nobles,  who  stood  by  him  upon  the  royal  bench,  and 
questioned  them  in  these  words:  "And  ye,  what  say 
ye  to  this  ?  Hear  ye  what  these  have  sworn  ?  Will 
ye  sever  yourselves  from  them  ?  "  The  council  of  state 
answered  in  the  name  of  the  collective  body  of  knights 
and  nobles,  and  promised  to  his  princely  grace  obedi- 
ence in  all  which  should  tend  to  the  weal  and  profit 
of  king  and  fatherland.  But  the  prince  raised  his 
hand  and  said:  "  So  swear  that  ye  will  obey  me  in  that 
which  I  shall  prescribe."  Then  the  greatest  number 
lifted  their  hands;  but  there  were  many  who  would 
not.     Not  from  all,  even  in  that  position  of  command- 


The  Reformation  in  Sweden.  247 

ing  influence,  could  Charles  obtain  the  pledge  that  they 
would  obey  him  in  all  that  he  should  prescribe.  But 
the  whole  proceeding — the  calling  of  the  diet  against 
the  prohibition  of  the  king  and  the  refusal  at  first 
of  the  council — the  thoroughness  of  its  proceedings 
and  the  method  of  securing  the  adherence  to  both  of 
the  Estates  and  the  people — exhibit  the  extraordinary 
resolution  and  ability  of  the  duke.  If  at  either  of  the 
two  diets  of  Upsala,  or  at  this,  Charles  had  faltered, 
Protestantism  would  have  been  extinguished  in  Swe- 
den, as,  a  century  later,  it  was  extinguished  in  Austria 
and  Bohemia. 

It  would  be  an  interesting  topic  for  a  monograph, 
by  a  competent  historian — that  of  showing  in  how 
many  instances  the  fate  of  nations,  for  centuries  of 
weal  or  wo,  has  hung  suspended  on  the  fidelity  and 
firmness,  or  the  treachery  and  weakness,  of  a  single 
mind.  In  such  a  treatise  the  history  of  Charles  IX. 
would  occupy  a  conspicuous  and  honorable  position. 


CHAPTER  XII. 

FROM  THE  MEETING  OF  THE  DIET  OF  SODERKCEPING, 
SEPT.  30,  1596,  TO  THE  CLOSE  OF  THE  REIGN  OF 
CHARLES   IX.,    OCT.    30,    l6ll. 

WE  enter  at  this  point  into  a  new  series  of  strug- 
gles and  entanglements  on  the  part  of  Charles, 
which  it  would  seem  that  no  one  but  a  true  inheritor 
of  the  stalwart  body  and  the  big  brain  and  the  indom- 
itable resolution  of  the  great  Gustavus  could  for  a  series 
of  years  have  endured. 

Enforcement  The  statutes  of  Soderkceping  were  promul- 
of  the  Ecde-  gated  by  Charles  in  Swedish  and  German  and 
visions  of  the  Latin.  The  worship  of  the  Catholics  at  Stock- 
Diet.  holm,  Drottningholm,  and  Wadstena,  was  in- 

terdicted and  the  priests  were  banished.  The  convent 
at  the  latter  place,  the  most  famous  in  the  kingdom, 
was  suppressed.  A  general  church  inquest  for  the  sup- 
pression of  Popery  throughout  the  kingdom  was  estab- 
lished. The  new  archbishop,  Abraham,  drove  on  this 
measure  throughout  the  kingdom  with  great  severity; 
but  no  lives  were  taken  on  account  of  religion.  The 
minister  of  the  church  of  Stockholm,  Eric  Schepper, 
exhibited  equal  zeal.  They  were  both  violent,  injudi- 
cious and  unstable  men;  and  when  they  found  that  they 
could  not  direct  and  overrule  Charles  they  soon  grew 
cool  in  carrying  out  the  objects  which  they  first  advo- 


The  Reformation  in  Sweden.  249 

cated  and  pressed  with  undue  heat.  Schepper  assumed 
to  criticise  and  harshly  censure  some  measures  of  the 
government  which  had  no  reference  to  religious  inter- 
ests. The  archbishop  protected  Schepper;  but  his  in- 
tervention did  not  prevent  Charles's  deposition  of  him 
from  his  office.  To  the  archbishop  he  wrote,  "  We  will 
maintain  the  right  which  our  father  of  happy  memory 
acquired,  that  it  shall  appertain  to  the  magistrate  to 
suspend  a  clergyman  upon  well-grounded  cause  from 
the  exercise  of  his  office;  else  might  we  as  gladly  sit 
under  the  Pope  as  under  the  Archbishop  and  Chapter 
of  Upsala."  The  duke  charged  upon  the  archbishop 
that  he  demeaned  himself  more  like  an  executioner 
than  a  paternal  prelate. 

It  was  a  matter  of  course  that  the  proceed- 
FfromakiIg  ings  of  the  Diet  of  Soderkceping  should  be 
Sigismund  verv  offensive  to  King  Sigismund.  He  sent 
an  embassy  of  six  of  his  highest  nobles  to 
remonstrate  against  their  execution.  To  their  demand 
that  these  enactments  should  be  rescinded  Duke  Charles 
gave  a  very  decided  refusal.  These  embassadors,  how- 
ever, had  an  opportunity  to  tamper  with  the  members 
of  his  council,  whose  assent  to  the  summons  and  the 
decrees  of  the  Diet  of  Soderkceping  we  have  seen  were 
extorted  by  the  firm  measures  of  the  duke.  All  of  the 
members  of  the  council  but  one  joined  with  the  em- 
bassy in  demanding  a  repeal  of  some  of  the  measures 
of  the  late  diet,  which  they  had  sanctioned  only  under 
intimidation.  Charles  had  now  reached  a  point  where 
he  seemed  absolutely  helpless.  Civil  war  raged  in  Fin- 
land. The  commander  of  the  troops  in  that  country 
refused  to  lead  them  by  command  of  the  duke,  while 
he  himself  was  thus  in  open  disobedience  to  the  king. 
No  other  path  seemed  open  to  him  but  to  resign.     He 


250  The  Reformation  in  Sweden. 

would  not  continue  in  office  on  condition  of  reversing-, 
or  sanctioning  the  reversal  of,  the  statutes  of  the  Diet 
of  Soderkceping.  Without  this  reversal,  in  obedience 
to  the  king,  he  could  not  now  secure  the  co-operation 
of  his  council,  or  enforce  the  obedience  of  the  leaders  of 
the  troops.  He  resolved  to  resign.  But  the  form  in 
which  his  resignation  was  offered  leads  us  to  infer  that 
he  foresaw  that  an  armed  conflict  in  defense  of  Protes- 
tantism, which  was  now  identified  with  the  cause  of 
the  old  liberties  of  Sweden,  was  inevitable,  and  could 
no  longer  be  delayed. 

The  Duke  When  tne  duke  announced  that  he  would 
Resigns  pie  lay  down  the  government,  he  coupled  with 
Government.  the  announcement  the  declaration  that  as 
he  had  received  it  from  the  Estates,  into  their  hands 
alone  should  it  be  deposited.  He  accordingly  con- 
vened a  new  diet  to  be  held  in  February  of  the  follow- 
ing year  in  Arboga.  Meantime,  on  the  13th  of  Janu- 
ary, 1597,  came  Sigismund's  letter  to  the  Estates  of  the 
realm  to  the  effect  that  he  had  learned  from  his  envoys, 
on  their  return,  that  the  duke  would  not  conform  to  his 
directions:  and  that  therefore  the  king  transferred  the 
government  of  the  country  to  the  council.  On  the 
25th  day  of  the  same  month  Charles  wrote  to  the  king 
that  the  envoys  had  not  mentioned  to  him  that  he  had 
already  deprived  him  of  the  government.  He  then  en- 
tered into  a  full  vindication  of  all  his  proceedings  as 
those  which  were  demanded  by  loyalty  to  the  will  of 
his  royal  father  Gustavus,  and  the  principles  upon 
which  he  had  established  the  government.  He  con- 
cluded with  the  statement  that  he  had  convened  the 
diet  at  Arboga;  and  with  a  declaration,  which  was  in 
effect  an  announcement,  that  whether  that  coming 
diet  should  accept  or  decline  to  receive  his  resigna- 


The  Reformation  in  Sweden.  251 

tion,  he  would  still  resist  the  efforts  of  the  king  to 
overthrow  the  decrees  of  Soderkceping  and  to  admin- 
ister the  government  in  the  interests  of  Romanism. 
The  king  could  not  misapprehend  the  meaning  of  such 
a  sentence  as  this:  "We  would  not  deal  underhand,  but 
would  have  your  majesty  plainly  informed  and  warned 
that  if  the  government  of  this  realm  be  not  otherwise 
disposed  and  arranged  (i.  e.,  otherwise  than  as  you 
propose)  we  will  not  be  subject  to  such  a  government, 
but  will  use  those  means  and  expedients  which  may 
help  for  the  alleviation  of  our  own  lot  and  that  of  the 
country." 

Diet  ofAr-  The  conduct  of  Charles  at  first  at  Arboga 
b°Xa-  seems   to   sanction   the   conjecture   which   I 

have  made  that  he  hoped  that  the  diet  would  not  ac- 
cept his  resignation.  Finding  that  no  one  raised  a 
voice  to  dissuade  him  at  the  opening  of  the  diet,  from 
resigning  the  regency,  he  retired  to  his  near  palace  of 
Gripsholm,  as  if  for  the  purpose  of  taking  no  part  in 
its  proceedings.  But  on  reflecting  upon  the  anarchy 
that  might  ensue  if  he  continued  in  that  resolution, 
he  stifled  his  indignation  and  returned.  The  diet  as- 
sembled at  the  designated  time,  notwithstanding  the 
prohibition  of  the  king  and  the  protest  of  the  council. 
One  only  of  the  lords  of  the  council,  Count  Axel 
Oxenstiern,  could  be  induced  to  attend;  and  but  a 
small  sprinkling  of  the  nobility  were  present.  Even 
the  hitherto  too  zealous  archbishop  was  accused  of 
having  secretly  given  in  his  allegiance  to  the  king. 
To  the  appeals  of  Charles  the  representative  peas- 
ants answered  with  enthusiasm,  and  brandished  their 
clubs  and  axes  in  the  face  of  the  lords,  declaring  that 
they  would  defend  Charles,  against  all  enemies,  so 
long   as   the   blood    was    warm    in    their   veins.     The 


252  The  Reformation  in  Sweden. 

statute  that  was  passed  was  sent  through  all  the 
country  for  signature.  It  contained  a  re-assertion  of 
the  statute  of  Soderkceping.  Whoever  opposed  its 
provisions  was  to  be  put  down  by  arms,  as  a  public 
enemy;  and  the  duke,  who  now,  at  the  request  of  the 
diet,  resumed  the  government,  proceeded  to  the  en- 
forcement of  its  decrees.  Most  of  the  counselors  fled 
from  the  kingdom.  Charles,  with  great  promptitude, 
took  possession  of  Elfsborg,  Stegborg  and  Calmar,  and 
passed  over  into  Finland  where  his  old  foe  Clas  Flem- 
ing had  lately  died.  There  he  made  several  noblemen 
prisoners;  and  a  new  envoy  of  the  king  to  Stockholm 
saw  some  of  them  conducted  to  the  scaffold.  The  die 
was  now  cast;  the  issue  was  made;  civil  war  already 
was  begun.  It  was  a  distinct  issue  between  a  king 
who  was  attempting,  against  his  coronation  oath  and 
the  fundamental  laws  of  the  kingdom,  to  introduce  a 
religion  which  they  had  repudiated  and  which  they 
abhorred;  and  a  prince,  an  hereditary  heir  to  the 
throne  whose  foundation  principle  he  was  bound  to 
conserve,  and  at  the  head  of  a  people,  for  whose  rights 
and  liberties  he  was  under  the  most  solemn  obligation 
to  contend.  There- never  was  a  clearer  call  of  duty  to 
self,  to  God,  and  to  country,  than  that  which  was  now 
made  upon  the  duke. 

Smsm  d's  Upon  hearing  of  these  events  the  king  raised 
return  to  an  army  of  six  thousand  men  and  came  to 
Sweden  and  took  possession  of  Calmar.  Even 
Stockholm  declared  for  him.  But  Charles,  at  the  head 
of  the  indomitable  Dalesmen,  who  triumphantly  bore 
the  great  Gustavus  to  the  throne,  prepared  to  meet 
the  king  in  open  fight.  The  presence  of  a  foreign  army 
in  Sweden  exasperated  a  large  number  of  persons,  who 
might  otherwise  have  been  neutral  or  friendly  to  the 


The  Reformation  in  Sweden.  253 

king.  At  a  first  encounter  the  forces  of  the  king 
gained  some  advantage.  But  in  a  second  great  battle, 
at  Stangbridge  in  Linkoping,  the  king's  forces  were  ut- 
terly defeated,  with  a  loss  of  two  thousand  men  killed 
and  comparatively  few  wounded;  and  with  but  little 
loss  on  the  part  of  the  army  of  the  duke.  The  king 
and  the  duke  held  a  personal  conference  immediately 
after  the  battle.  This  was  followed  by  the  convention 
of  Linkoping,  by  which  the  faithless  Sigismund  was  al- 
lowed by  Charles,  even  in  that  hour  of  victory,  to  be 
acknowledged  king  on  the  condition,  again  renewed, 
that  he  would  govern  the  kingdom  according  to  his 
coronation  oath,  and  send  back  his  foreign  troops,  and 
within  four  months  convoke  a  diet.  From  the  general 
amnesty  that  was  proclaimed  Charles  insisted  that  the 
names  of  five  of  the  counselors,  who  had  fled  to  the 
king  in  Poland,  should  be  excepted.  These  lords  were 
delivered  up  to  the  duke. 

The  ever-faithless  king  at  once  violated  the  provi- 
sions of  the  treaty  of  Linkoping  by  leaving  a  garrison 
of  Polish  troops  at  Calmar.  By  one  of  the  articles  of 
that  treaty  it  was  provided  that  the  States  should  have 
the  right  to  resist  any  violation  of  its  provisions.  Ac- 
cordingly, when  it  was  known  that  Sigismund  had  left 
these  Polish  troops  at  Calmar,  the  Estates  assembled 
at  Jenkceping  in  the  early  part  of  1599  and  renounced 
their  allegiance  to  Sigismund  conditionally.  At  a 
new  diet  in  July  this  condition  was  withdrawn,  and 
it  was  added  that  if  within  six  months  Sigismund 
should  not  send  his  son  Vladislaus  to  Sweden  to  be 
educated  for  the  crown  in  the  evangelic  faith,  his  fam- 
ily should  forfeit  for  ever  its  hereditary  right  to  the 
Swedish  throne.  The  duke  was  declared 
prince  hereditary  of  the  realm. 


254  The  Reformation  in  Sweden. 

This  was  the  end  of  Sigismund's  power  even  in  name 
in  his  hereditary  kingdom. 

Sinmlar Po  According  to  the  usual  course  of  history  it 
sition  of  was  to  be  expected  that  Charles  would  mount 
Charles.  the  tiirone  -phe  Estates  had  declared  that 
Sigismund  and  his  heirs  had  for  ever  forfeited  their 
hereditary  right.  Charles  was  the  next  acknowledged 
and  undisputed  heir.  He  had  for  a  long  time,  during 
the  absence  of  the  king,  administered  the  government; 
and  now  that  the  king's  authority  was  disowned,  his 
government  of  the  kingdom  with  the  full  royal  power 
would  be  continuous  —  uninterrupted  and  unshared. 
That  he  did  not  at  once  enter  upon  the  office  that 
was  open  to  him,  and  did  not  subsequently,  for  a  long 
time,  accept  it  when  it  was  pressed  upon  him,  was  not 
due  to  embarrassments  and  obstacles  without,  but  rather 
to  scruples  of  conscience  which  we  cannot  but  regard 
as  real.  For  his  difficulties  were  increased  by  the 
singular  and  anomalous  position  which  he  occupied; 
and  the  peaceful  settlement  of  the  kingdom  delayed 
by  his  persistent  hesitation.  While  there  was  in  the 
character  of  Charles  a  severity  which  subsequently,  in 
the  struggle  with  manifold  treacheries,  sometimes  har- 
dened into  cruelty,  there  was  at  the  same  time  a  high 
conscientiousness,  and  a  power  of  stern  self-repression, 
and  a  vigorous  will  to  follow  out  his  convictions  of 
duty,  which  recall  the  best  specimens  of  heroic  Puri- 
tanism. His  religion  was  free  from  fanaticism,  and 
was  guided  far  more  by  moral  than  emotional  forces. 
And  along  with  this  stern  conscientiousness  he  had 
a  lofty  view  of  the  prerogatives  and  rights  of  the  house 
of  Vasa,  and  would  contend  for  their  conservation,  even 
when  that  contention  would  harm  rather  than  help  his 
personal  interests.     It  is  impossible  to  read  the  record 


The  Reformation  in  Sweden.  255 

of  the  career  of  Charles  from  this  period  with  an  un- 
derstanding of  its  guiding  principles  and  motives,  ex- 
cept upon  the  view  which  I  have  here  presented — a 
view  which  Geijer  has  thus  admirably  explained  and 
expanded. 

"The  common  responsibility  which  Gustavus  had  im- 
posed upon  his  sons  was  in  truth  Charles's  political  re- 
ligion. Throughout  his  life  he  fought  for  the  Swedish 
crown,  seemingly  against  his  own  interest  and  that  of  his 
children;  and  he  was  himself,  amid  these  contrarieties, 
torn  by  internal  strife.  With  one  hand  battling  against 
Sigismund,  and  all  the  dangers  which  with  him  threat- 
ened the  country,  with  the  other  he  struggled  inex- 
orably with  the  factions  which  had  dared  to  beleaguer 
the  throne  of  Gustavus  Vasa.  As  the  son  of  Gustavus, 
and  from  his  whole  position,  he  could  not  misappreci- 
ate  the  value  of  power  bestowed  by  the  voice  of  the 
people.  But  on  the  same  voice  his  whole  family  rested 
their  hereditary  right.  Against  Sigismund,  an  outcast 
by  religion  from  the  heritage  of  the  father  of  his  line, 
Charles  enforced  the  resolution  of  the  Estates.  But 
there  remained  a  child  whose  weak  arm,  outstretched 
between  him  and  the  throne,  seems  to  have  excited  in 
him  deeper  disquietude.  Duke  John,  Sigismund's  half- 
brother,  was,  by  the  hereditary  settlement,  his  claim 
being  unforfeited,  next  heir  to  the  throne.  Not  only 
was  the  life  of  this  child  held  sacred  by  a  hand  other- 
wise so  blood-stained,  but  Charles  fulfilled  towards 
him  all  the  duties  of  a  near  kinsman.  He  is  still  un- 
certain whether  the  young  prince's  renunciation  of  his 
pretensions,  made  at  the  age  of  fifteen,  is  valid;  and 
closes  by  acknowledging  in  his  testament  John's  su- 
perior right  '  provided  that  the  Estates  of  the  realm 
shall  in  no  wise   depart  from  their  enacted  statutes.' 


256  The  Reformation  in  Sweden. 

According  to  this  Sweden  was  without  a  king  at  the 
death  of  Charles,  and  first  received  one  in  Gustavus 
Adolphus  by  a  new  election  of  the  Estates." 

By  the  light  of  this  explanation  of  the  singular 
attitude  of  Charles's  mind,  we  can  comprehend  some 
of  his  proceedings  after  the  deposition  of  Sigismund 
which  would  be  otherwise  unintelligible.  On  the  one 
hand  we  cannot  fail  to  respect  the  personal  self-abne- 
gation with  which,  in  obedience  to  what  he  almost 
alone  regarded  as  a  claim  of  right,  he  consented  that 
the  crown  should  pass  from  his  own  gifted  son  to  one 
who  had  ceased  to  be  a  Swede,  and  had  been  educated 
in  the  faith  the  attempt  to  introduce  which  into  Swe- 
den had  convulsed  the  country  for  fifty  years.  On  the 
other  hand  we  wonder  at  the  seeming  want  of  consis- 
tency by  which  he  adhered  so  fanatically  to  the  prin- 
cipal of  hereditary  succession  as  to  sacrifice  his  son's 
pretensions  to  those  of  his  nephew,  which,  by  the 
supreme  authority  of  the  State,  had  been  forfeited; 
while  he  left  the  kingdom  in  such  a  state  as  to  make 
it  inevitable  that  his  son  should  succeed,  not  by  that 
right  of  hereditary  succession  to  which  he  rendered 
such  unusual  homage,  but  by  a  new  election  of  the 
people.  These  are  singular  weaknesses  in  a  strong 
character  which,  although  on  the  side  of  self-abnega- 
tion, we  find  it  difficult  to  respect,  because  they  laid 
his  kingdom  open  to  dangers,  which  all  his  life  was 
passed  in  the  struggle  to  forefend  and  overcome. 
_.  .,  Trr       Sigismund's   exasperation   at  the   failure  of 

Civil    War.     .  .         rr  ~ 

his  effort  to  coerce  Sweden  was  extreme. 
He  had  enough  partisans  in  the  country,  and  espe- 
cially in  Finland,  to  excite  a  civil  war.  A  slanderous 
pamphlet  was  prepared  against  Charles,  by  the  com- 
mand of  Sigismund,  and   distributed   through   all  the 


The  Reformation  in  Sweden.  257 

courts  of  Europe.  The  mutual  animosities  of  the  two 
parties  became  greatly  inflamed.  The  Dalecarlians  and 
the  adjacent  provinces  were  leagued  to  resist  and  crush 
the  partisans  of  the  king.  The  lords  of  the  council 
who  had  been  surrendered  to  Charles  were  tried  and 
executed.  Many  others  were  executed,  and  still  more 
banished.  And  while  the  war  in  Livonia  and  Finland 
was  in  progress,  in  the  conduct  of  which  Charles  ener- 
getically intervened,  the  crown  was  twice  offered  to 
him  and  rejected.  The  States  indeed  became  impa- 
tient and  angry  with  Charles  because  of  this  persistent 
refusal  of  the  crown.  At  length,  in  1604,  when  the 
civil  war  was  ended,  Charles  accepted  the  crown  after 
it  had  been  offered,  at  his  request,  to  Duke  John,  and 
had  been  declined  on  account  of  the  conditions  at- 
tached to  its  acceptance. 

Relation  of  We  have  already  intimated  that  Charles  had 
Charles  to  given  some  indications  of  his  preference  of 
and  Tfe  the  Reformed  to  the  Lutheran  Church.  His 
Church.  relation  to  the  clergy  became  unfriendly  and 
continued  to  be  so  to  the  end  of  his  reign.  It  must  be 
confessed  that  there  was  not  much  in  the  character 
of  the  Lutheran  clergy  at  that  time  to  secure  the  re- 
spect of  one  of  such  rigid  principles,  and  such  straight- 
forward policy  as  Charles.  Moreover,  the  Reformed 
system  itself,  in  its  general  principles,  was  no  doubt 
more  congenial  to  his  nature.  "  The  perfecter  of  the 
Reformation  in  Sweden,"  says  Geijer,  "was  not  reck- 
oned an  orthodox  Lutheran."  At  the  Diet  of  Linkce- 
ping,  in  1600,  a  service-book  prepared  by  him  had  been 
rejected  by  the  clergy.  But  Charles,  notwithstanding, 
introduced  the  new  order  of  worship  which  he  had 
proposed  into  his  own  household.  It  was  charged 
that  this  service  was  Calvinistic;  and  the  Archbishop, 


258  The  Reformation  in  Sweden. 

Olaf  Martinson  wrote  against  it  as  such.  It  is  curi- 
ous to  find  among  its  alleged  Calvinistic  points,  the 
statement  that  heretics  ought  to  be  allowed  Christian 
burial.  In  the  year  1601  Charles  published  a  collec- 
tion of  Swedish  psalms.  He  also  composed  and  pub- 
lished a  collection  of  Swedish  and  German  hymns. 
In  1604  he  issued  a  Swedish  catechism,  in  which  he 
followed  the  Reformed  catechism  of  Heidelberg.  This 
publication,  together  with  his  effort  to  secure  an 
amended  translation  of  the  Bible,  caused  no  little 
commotion  among  the  Swedish  clergy.  Controversies 
arose,  in  which  Charles  showed  himself  no  mean  po- 
lemic. He  contended  against  the  decree  of  a  Diet 
of  Upsala,  which  had  modified  the  article  of  the 
Augsburg  Confession,  that  the  Scriptures  were  the 
sole  rule  of  faith.  He  also  contended  that  sacraments 
were  only  confirmatory  signs  of  grace,  and  did  not  in 
themselves  impart  forgiveness  of  sins.  Hence  he  de- 
nied that  the  reception  of  the  Sacrament  of  the  Lord's 
Supper  at  the  hour  of  death  was  necessary  for  salva- 
tion, although  it  might  be  a  comfort  and  support;  and 
he  dwelt  upon  the  anguish  which  was  inflicted  upon 
the  dying,  who  could  not  obtain  the  sacrament,  by 
this  cruel  dogma.  He  contended  that  only  a  condi- 
tional and  not  a  positive  absolution  should  be  pro- 
nounced upon  confession;  and  that  the  words  should 
be  inserted  into  the  formula  of  absolution  "in  the 
name  of  God  who  alone  forgiveth  sins."  He  also 
advocated  the  use  of  reason  and  philosophy  in  the 
construction  of  a  Christian  theology.  It  is  creditable 
to  Charles,  and  in  this  we  see  an  utter  contrast  to 
the  policy  of  his  brother  John,  that  he  made  no  at- 
tempt to  force  his  new  services  and  doctrines  upon 
the  diets  and  the  people;  and  that  the  archbishop  was 


The  Reformation  in  Sweden.  259 

permitted  to  answer  the  royal  theologian  as  an  equal, 
without  suffering  any  penalty  or  deprivation.  The 
Lutheran  system  remained  unmodified,  and  so  con- 
tinues in  Sweden;  and  it  must  be  confessed  that  it  has 
exhibited  itself  there  as  narrow  and  intolerant  as  in 
any  part  of  Europe.  It  is  less  than  twenty  years  since 
the  profession  of  the  Catholic  faith  and  the  exercise 
of  the  Catholic  worship  has  been  allowed  in  Sweden. 
Charles  spent  a  large  part  of  his  life  in  the  abortive 
attempt  to  unite  the  Lutheran  and  Reformed  Churches. 
He  did  not  adopt  all  the  views  of  Calvin,  and  especially 
his  most  distinctive  doctrine,  the  decrees  of  election 
and  reprobation.  Many  conferences  and  disputations 
were  held  upon  the  subject.  But  all  his  efforts  failed 
of  making  any  impression  upon  the  Lutheran  clergy. 
The  reign  of  Charles  extended  to  the  year 

Concluding;       ,-  -r»      •  ,i  i 

Years  of  1611.  During  that  period  no  new  arrange- 
Charles'  ments  were  made  in  ecclesiastical  affairs. 
He  devoted  himself  with  earnest  efforts  to 
restore  order  and  prosperity  to  the  country;  and  his 
judicious  and  energetic  measures  for  that  object  would 
have  met  with  greater  success,  but  for  the  wars  in 
which  he  was  involved  with  Denmark  and  with  Rus- 
sia. It  is,  notwithstanding,  one  of  the  enigmas  of  his- 
tory, that,  after  so  many  years  of  strife  and  of  national 
exhaustion  which  followed  the  death  of  Gustavus,  a 
country  so  poor  and  sparsely  settled  should  so  soon 
afterwards  develop  the  large  resources  and  put  forth 
the  strength  in  the  great  Protestant  struggle  in  Ger- 
many which  has  made  the  name  of  Gustavus  Adolphus 
immortal. 


The  End. 


